FiASS  AND 


8 


11 


HHIIRjlUj 
MB 


tii 


HI 


III 


I 


REESE  LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 
Class 


MASS   AND    CLASS 


BY   THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

OUR  BENEVOLENT  FEUDALISM 

1902.     Pp.  202.     Cloth,  $1.25 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 
66  FIFTH  AVENUE 


MASS    AND    CLASS 

A   SURVEY    OF   SOCIAL 
DIVISIONS 


BY      , 

W.  J.   GHENT 

f/f 

Read  not  to  contradict  and  confute,  nor  to  believe  and 
take  for  granted,  nor  to  find  talk  and  discourse,  but  to 
weigh  and  consider. 

FRANCIS  BACON:   Of  Studies  (1625). 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON :   MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1904 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,   1904, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  October,  1904. 


Norton  oB  $resa 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 
Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


MR.  MALLOCK  has  already  preempted  the 
title  of  Classes  and  Masses?  and  the  captious 
may  thus  be  led  to  look  upon  the  present  title 
as  something  in  the  nature  of  an  infringement. 
Such  titular  resemblances,  however,  are  not 
unusual,  particularly  in  the  realm  of  contro- 
versy- There  are,  among  instances  that  will 
occur  to  readers,  George  Sand's  She  and  He, 
with  Paul  de  Musset's  counterblast,  He  and 
She,  and  Proudhon's  The  Philosophy  of  Mis- 
ery, with  Marx's  The  Misery  of  Philosophy. 
The  similarity  in  the  present  case  may  perhaps 
be  unfortunate,  but  it  was  not  to  be  avoided. 
The  title  here  used  was  not  suggested  by  that 
of  the  earlier  work,  but  was  chosen  because  it 
seemed  essential  to  the  subject-matter  of  the 
volume.  But  even  had  a  nearer  approach  to 
the  earlier  title  been  made,  the  act  would  hardly 
have  been  reprehensible.  For  it  is  among  the 
possibilities  that  a  literary  court  of  equity, 
should  such  a  body  ever  be  convened,  might 

1  W.  H.  Mallock,  Classes  and  Masses  (London,  1896). 
V 


PREFACE 

readily  void  Mr.  Mallock's  exclusive  right  to 
his  title  on  the  plea  of  non-user.  He  fails  to 
deal  adequately  with  either  classes  or  masses; 
what  he  calls  classes  are  not  classes,  either 
economic  or  social,  out  mere  aggregates  of 
beings  arbitrarily  set  apart  by  the  author  on 
the  test  of  relative  income ;  while  his  argument 
and  illustration  are  confined  solely  to  an  attempt 
to  prove  the  interesting  assumption  that  out  of 
the  modern  increase  of  wealth  in  Great  Britain 
the  "  working  classes  "  have  received  an  alto- 
gether disproportionate  share. 

In  my  previous  work  I  sought,  by  a  satirical 
interpretation  of  the  facts  and  tendencies  of  the 
time,  to  depict  the  not  impossible  return  of  a 
regime  of  lord,  agent,  and  underling.  I  have 
no  excuses  or  apologies  to  offer  for  that  work. 
As  a  warning  alike  to  the  apathetic  and  to  the 
oversanguine,  it  served,  I  hope,  a  useful  pur- 
pose. But  the  data  which  it  employed  were 
not,  as  my  critics  hastened  to  point  out,  the 
only  data  pertinent  to  the  matter,  nor  was  the 
regime  predicted  the  sole  and  inevitable  out- 
come. It  is  of  the  "possible  alternative  out- 
come," mentioned  in  the  preface  to  the  third 
edition  of  that  work,  that  I  have  now  to  speak, 
—  "the  assertion  of  the  democratic  spirit  and 
will,  the  conquest  of  the  baronial  regime,  and 

vi 


PREFACE 

the  transformation  of  the  industrial  system " 
into  one  more  in  accord  with  the  needs  of  the 
people.  In  my  present  work  I  have  sought  to 
analyze  the  social  mass  into  its  component 
classes;  to  describe  these  classes,  not  as  they 
may  be  imagined  in  some  projected  benevolent 
feudalism,  but  as  they  are  to  be  found  here  and 
now  in  the  industrial  life  of  the  nation ;  and  to 
indicate  the  current  of  social  progress  which, 
in  spite  of  the  blindness  of  the  workers,  the 
rapacity  of  the  masters,  and  the  subservience 
of  the  retainers,  makes  ever  for  an  ultimate  of 
social  justice. 

W.  J.  GHENT. 

NEW  YORK  CITY, 
September  i,  1904. 


vii 


CONTENTS 


PREFACE v 

CHAPTER 

I.    THE  LESSON  FROM  HISTORY  i 

II.      Q.ASSES  AND  THE  flBASS   STRUGGLE  37 

III.  BASSES   AND   fijASS   FUNCTIONS     ....         69 

IV.  CLASS  ETHICS        .......      89 

V.    ETHICS  OF  THE  PRODUCERS  .        .        .        .        .114 

VI.  ETHICS  OF  THE  TRADERS 139 

VII.  THE  REIGN  OF  GRAFT 168 

VIII.  THE  REIGN  OF  GRAFT  (Continued')     .        .        .    201 

IX.  THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  TRADING  CLASS        .        .231 

INDEX       .        ,        ,        ,       , 257 


ix 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

CHAPTER   I 

THE  LESSON  FROM  HISTORY 

HISTORY,  which  once  was  the  record  of  little 
more  than  the  doings  and  sayings  of  warriors 
and  kings,  comes  now  to  be  the  record  of 
human  society.  It  still  includes,  to  some  ex- 
tent, the  sayings  and  doings  of  the  great,  but 
more  and  more  it  deals  with  the  play  of  forces 
among  the  masses  of  men.  From  emphasis  of 
the  individual  it  passed  to  emphasis  of  the  state, 
while  now  it  tends  to  lay  the  greater  stress  upon 
the  social  body.  "  The  newer  spirit  in  history," 
writes  Professor  Seligman, 

"emphasizes  not  so  much  the  constitutional  as  the 
institutional  side  in  development,  and  understands  by 
institutions  not  merely  the  political  institutions,  but 
the  wider  social  institutions  of  which  the  political 
form  is  only  one  manifestation.  The  emphasis  is 
now  put  upon  social  growth." 1 

1  E.  R.  A.  Seligman,  The  Economic  Interpretation  of  History ', 
p.  164. 

B  I 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

Or,  as  another  repent  writer,  viewing  the  sub- 
ject from  a  pedagogical  standpoint,  says :  — 

"The  teacher  of  history,  like  the  politician  and 
historian,  has  been  brought  |o  a  change  of  base. 
The  world  is  no  longer  chiefly  concerned  in  thp  acts 
and  privileges  of  rulers  and  kings,  but  in  the  mam- 
moth social  needs  of  the  people." 1 

The  newer  spirit  has  but  gradually  won  its 
way.  Even  yet  reactions  are  frequent,  for  the 
reverent  mass,  transmuting  the  virtue  of  admi- 
ration into  the  vice  of  apotheosis,  holds  to  its 
heroes  and  "  great  men  "  as  it  did  to  its  fetiches 
in  the  days 

"  When  all  our  fathers  worshipped  stocks  and  stones." 

And  there  will  ever  be  found  writers  of  history 
to  satisfy  this  economic  demand.  But  the 
partial  break  with  the  past  which  was  shown 
in  the  work  of  George  Grote 2  became  a  practi- 
cally complete  severance  in  the  work  of  John 
Richard  Green ;  and  later  historians  have  for 
the  most  part,  like  Green,  laid  stress  upon 
social  rather  than  individual  factors.  Here  in 
America  the  newer  history  finds  its  best  expres- 
sion in  the  work  of  Professor  John  Bach 

1  Charles  A.  McMurry,  Special  Method  in  History,  p.  3. 

2  See  Leslie  Stephen,  The  Utilitarians,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  342  and 
following. 

2 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

Me  Master,  which,  though  marred  by  class 
spirit  and  an  occasional  taint  of  intolerance,  is 
yet  notable  for  the  thoroughness  with  which  it 
portrays  social  conditions. 

In  this  modern* view,  causes  and  effects 
change  places.  What  once  were  regarded  as 
the  prompters  and  movers  of  national  or  racial 
action  come  now  to  be  regarded  as  mere  mani- 
festations of  great  social  forces.  A  king's  vow, 
a  warrior's  ambition,  no  longer  suffice  to  ex- 
plain the  origin  of  a  mighty  war,  even  of  an- 
cient times.  We  now  look  behind  and  beyond 
the  apparent  agent  for  the  real  source  of  collec- 
tive action.  Let  one  say,  for  a  modern  instance, 
that  it  was  the  arrogance  of  Louis  Napoleon 
which  plunged  France  into  a  suicidal  war  with 
Prussia.  The  statement  may  be  true,  and  yet 
be  but  a  small  part  of  the  whole  truth.  Be- 
hind this  apparent  cause  were  the  forces  which 
made  such  a  war  well-nigh  inevitable.  The 
fatuity  of  the  French  people,  which  put  the 
lesser  Napoleon  on  the  throne  and  supported 
him  there;  the  illusions  growing  out  of  the 
Bonapartist  tradition  by  which  the  entire  nation 
was  exalted ;  the  tone  of  overlordship  assumed 
by  French  diplomats  in  the  councils  of  Europe; 
the  increasing  ambition  of  the  French  traders, 
—  all  these  were  factors.  The  sturdy  growth 

3 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

of  the  German  people;  the  widespread  senti- 
ment among  them  for  imperial  unity,  and  the 
long-smouldering  hope  of  inflicting  on  Paris 
the  humiliation  which  Berlin  had  suffered  in 
1806,  —  these,  too,  were  factors,  converging 
with  the  others  to  a  climax  of  war.  Louis 
Napoleon  was  but  one  of  their  agents. 

I 

Now  since  social  forces  and  their  manifesta- 
tions, instead  of  the  actions  of  grea^jnen,  come 
to  be  regarded  as  the  mam  subject-matter  of 
history,  it  is  necessary  to  determine  if  there  be 
not  one  force  which  precedes  and  which  occa- 
sions, or  greatly  influences,  all  other  forces. 
According  to  the  sociologist,  Gustav  Ratzen- 
hofer,  all  human  action  springs  from  interest  — 
that  interest,  in  the  words  of  Professor  Ward, 
"which  is  in  the  nature  of  a  force,  .  .  .  the 
social  homologue  of  the  universal  nisus  of 
nature,  the  primordial  cosmic  force  which  pro- 
duces all  change."1  There  are,  of  course, 
various  kinds  of  interest,  material  as  well  as 
transcendental.  "  If,  therefore,"  continues  Pro- 
fessor Ward,  "  we  take  into  account  all  those 
different  kinds  of  interest,  physical,  racial, 

1  Lester  F.  Ward,  Pure  Sociology,^.  21. 
4 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

moral,  social,  and  transcendental,  it  becomes 
clear  that  all  action  is  based  on  supposed  gain 
of  one  or  another  of  these  orders." * 

But  it  is  not  enough  to  realize  the  universal 
impulsion  of  interests.  We  must  know  if  there 
be  not  a  specific  and  primal  interest,  a  funda- 
mental force,  which  prompts  or  governs  the 
greater  range  of  human  actions,  and  thereby 
occasions,  or  dominates,  the  greater  number  of 
beliefs.  That  there  is  such  a  mainspring  of 
action  most  scholars  are  convinced.  Some 
have  found  it  in  the  force  of  religious  or  ethical 
ideals,  some  even  in  the  force  of  political  ideals. 
But  that  this  mainspring  is  none  other  than  a 
form  of  the  physical  interest  —  in  brief,  the 
economic  force  —  becomes  day  by  day  the 
common  judgment  of  an  increasing  number 
of  students  and  scholars.  "The  world  has 
never  reached  a  stage,"  writes  Professor  Ward, 
"where  the  physical  and  temporary  interests 
have  not  been  in  the  ascendant."  With  the 
entire  mass  of  human  beings  there  lies,  at 
the  bottom  of  all  thought  and  feeling,  a  sense 
of  the  prime  necessity  which  Nature  has 
put  upon  us  —  the  necessity  of  securing  a 
living.  "  The  first  place,"  writes  the  late  Dr. 
Stuckenberg, 

i  Ward,  p.  61. 

5 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"  belongs  to  the  economic  force  because  primitive 
and  fundamental  for  all  the  others.  Whether  in 
isolation  or  in  society,  men  must  possess  the  means 
of  a  livelihood  in  order  to  exist  and  to  perform  the 
functions  of  life.  In  its  most  general  sense,  as  the 
provider  of  the  necessaries  of  life,  it  is  as  essential 
for  the  man  nearest  the  brute  as  for  the  sage  at  the 
climax  of  civilization.  Its  basal  character  can  be 
ignored  only  by  ignorance  or  by  a  false  spiritualism 
which  itself  depends  on  economics  for  existence. 
Every  human  being  must  either  earn  his  bread  or 
else  eat  the  bread  earned  for  him  by  some  one  else." 1 

The  economic  force  is  the  main  motive ;  but 
its  conduct  is  determined  or  largely  conditioned 
by  the  economic  environment,  the  prevailing 
mode  of  producing  and  exchanging  goods.  This 
mode,  though  at  particular  times  apparently  fixed 
and  stable,  undergoes  an  evolutionary  process, 
now  gradual  and  scarcely  perceptible,  and  now 
sudden  and  revolutionary.  It  is  one  thing  under 
the  tribal  economy  of  savages,  another  under  the 
household  economy  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans, 
still  another  under  the  feudal  economy  and  the 
town  economy  of  the  middle  ages,  and  a  far  differ- 
ent thing  under  the  capitalist  economy  of  to-day.2 

1  J.  H.  W.  Stuckenberg,  Sociology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  208-209. 

2  The  different  modes  of  production  in  historic  periods  are 
admirably  treated  in  Carl  Bucher's  Industrial  Evolution  (trans- 
lated by  S.  Morley  Wickett). 

6 


THE   LESSON   FROM    HISTORY 

For  the  human  will,  though  circumscribed  by 
outward  forces  and  conditions,  steadily  reacts 
upon  its  surroundings,  and  in  time  alters  its 
social  environment  just  as  it  conquers  and 
harnesses  the  forces  of  physical  nature.  "  In 
this  light,"  writes  Professor  Untermann, 

"  the  whole  history  of  mankind  appears  as  the  strug- 
gle of  the  human  mind  against  two  environments,  one 
of  them  natural,  the  other  social.  At  first,  the  natu- 
ral environment  presses  on  the  human  individuals 
with  primeval  force,  and  compels  them  through  mate- 
rial necessities  to  form  primitive  family  forms,  little 
better  than  a  herd  of  cattle.  But  while  the  rest  of 
the  animal  world  remains  the  slave  of  those  primeval 
forces,  the  human  mind  sets  about  devising  means 
to  control  those  forces.  And  so  the  social  organi- 
zation from  the  very  beginning  becomes  a  powerful 
tool  for  this  conquest  of  human  environment,  first 
used  quite  unconsciously,  but  ever  more  consciously, 
with  the  further  improvement  of  the  modes  of  pro- 
duction, till  we  have  now  reached  a  stage  in  our 
evolution  where  we  are  conscious  of  the  r61e  which 
human  society  is  playing  in  this  struggle  for  su- 
premacy over  the  forces  of  nature." 1 

But  whereas  Nature  offers  an  open  book  to 
her  students  and  inquirers,  who  by  discovering 

1  Ernest  Untermann,  article  on  "  The  Materialist  Concep- 
tion of  History,"  in  the  Appeal  to  Reason,  newspaper  (Girard. 
Kan.),  October  17,  1903. 

7 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

her  laws  may  conquer  and  utilize  her  forces  and 
thereby  alter  the  physical  environment  of  the 
race,  the  system  of  production,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  an  environment  hardened  in  cus- 
tom, law,  and  institution,  and  may  not  be 
altered  except  by  the  action  of  powerful  and 
convergent  social  forces.  A  genius  may  invent 
some  mechanism  by  which  the  technic  of  pro- 
ducing a  single  commodity  or  even  many  com- 
modities is  speedily  revolutionized;  but  the 
general  system  by  which  the  factors  of  produc- 
tion are  employed  and  the  products  distributed 
may  remain  uninfluenced.  The  economic  envi- 
ronment is  for  any  time  and  place  supreme  in 
its  control  of  the  individual.  All  who  are  born 
under  it  —  masters  and  servants  alike  —  are  its 
vassals,  destined  to  employ,  to  be  employed,  and 
to  be  recompensed  as  its  laws  dictate,  and  to 
feel,  think,  and  act  as  the  conditions  of  their 
employment  or  activity  compel  them. 


II 

The  doctrine  that  the  prevailing  mode  of 
production  and  exchange  is  the  main  determin- 
ing factor  in  human  affairs  is  known  as  "  the 
economic  interpretation  of  history."  This  doc- 
trine was  formulated  by  Karl  Marx,  who  is 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

coming  to  be  recognized  even  by  those  who  do 
not  accept  all  of  his  social  beliefs,  as  one  of  the 
really  great  geniuses  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Marx  chose  an  unfortunate  name  for  the  doc- 
trine; he  called  it  "the  materialist  concep- 
tion of  history  " ;  and  most  of  his  militant  fol- 
lowers continue  so  to  speak  of  it.  The  name 
is  unfortunate  in  that  it  seems  to  ally  the  doc- 
trine with  the  philosophy  of  materialism,  the 
doctrine  "  that  matter  is  the  only  substance,  and 
that  matter  and  its  motions  constitute  the  uni- 
verse." Marx's  doctrine  has,  however,  nothing 
to  do  with  the  claims  of  philosophic  materialism 
as  against  those,  of  monism  or  of  theism.  It 
is  historic  materialism  as  opposed  to  historic 
idealism,  the  latter  being  the  interpretation  of 
historic  phenomena  as  the  work  of  great  minds 
and  powerful  individualities,  and  carrying  with 
it  an  exaggerated  hero-worship.  Historic  mate- 
rialism is  concerned  with  the  play  of  causes  and 
effects  among  social  phenomena,  but  it  does  not 
touch  the  question  of  the  primary  cause  of  the 
cosmic  process.  Theists,  monists,  agnostics, 
and  materialists  may  thus,  in  considering  it, 
meet  upon  common  ground. 

The  economic  interpretation  of  history  is  the 
doctrine  that  the  relations  of  men  to  one  an- 
other in  the  matter  of  making  a  living  are  the 

9 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

main  underlying  causes  of  men's  habits  of 
thought  and  feeling,  their  notions  of  right,  pro- 
priety, and  legality,  their  institutions  of  society 
and  government,  their  wars  and  revolutions. 
Under  the  stress  of  the  economic  motive  men 
seek  to  satisfy  their  needs;  and  to  do  this, 
throughout  the  period  of  the  institution  of 
private  property,  they  have  had  to  compete 
with  one  another.  In  its  last  analysis  the 
struggle  is  one  of  individual  against  individual. 
But  since  in  all  times  the  individual  has  recog- 
nized or  sensed  his  own  weakness  in  the  strug- 
gle against  other  men  and  against  nature,  he 
has  had  to  make  common  cause  with  his  fellows 
xof  like  needs  and  aims.  The  history  of  man- 
kind is  thus  resolved  into  a  series  of  group 
struggles,  including,  in  the  main,  tribal  and 
racial  conflicts  as  well,  growing  out  of  the 
desire  for  economic  advantage.  With  the  de- 
velopment of  industry  from  its  primitive  or 
barbaric  forms,  these  groups  evolved  into  eco- 
nomic classes,  striving  to  obtain,  or  when 
obtained  to  hold,  the  prevailing  form  of  capital 
and  the  political  mastery  which  insured  its 
retention.  Petty  groups,  of  varying  interests, 
have  persisted  within  the  several  classes,  but 
the  determining  struggle  throughout  history 
X,has  continued  along  class  lines. 

10 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

Expressed  in  the  words  of  Frederick  Engels, 
the  friend  of  Marx  and  his  collaborator  in  The 
Manifesto  of  tke  Communist  Party  of  1848, 
the  doctrine  is  :  — 

"  That  in  every  historical  epoch,  the  prevailing 
mode  of  economic  production  and  exchange,  and  the 
social  organization  necessarily  following  from  it, 
form  the  basis,  upon  which  is  built  up,  and  from 
which  alone  can  be  explained,  the  political  and  intel- 
lectual history  of  that  epoch ;  that  consequently  the 
whole  history  of  mankind  (since  the  dissolution  of 
primitive  tribal  society,  holding  land  in  common 
ownership)  has  been  a  history  of  class  struggles, 
contests  between  exploiting  and  exploited,  ruling  and 
oppressed  classes."  1 

Since  from  the  beginning  of  human  life,  in 
all  but  the  garden  spots  of  the  earth,  men  have 
had  to  spend  the  greater  part  of  their  waking 
time  and  their  energy  in  securing  food,  warmth, 
and  clothing,  it  is  almost  a  matter  of  course  that 
the  methods  they  have  had  to  employ  in  this 
urgent  pursuit  have  prompted,  more  than  any- 
thing else,  their  habits  of  acting,  feeling,  and 
thinking  on  all  subjects,  have  determined  in 
great  measure  the  form  of  their  institutions, 
and  arrayed  mankind  in  conflicting  divisions. 

1  Frederick  Engels,  Introduction  to  the  English  translation 
of  The  Manifesto  of  the  Communist  Party  (1888).  "This 
proposition,"  writes  Engels  in  the  Introduction,  "which  in  my 

II 


MASS   AND   CLASS 


III 

It  is  not  contended  that  men  are  always,  or 
even  generally,  conscious  of  the  economic  mo- 
tive that  impels  them.  Far  less  is  it  to  be  con- 
tended that  they  are  aware  of  the  influence  laid 
upon  the  exercise  of  that  motive  by  the  prevail- 
ing economic  environment.  The  consciousness 
of  their  motives  is  often  but  dim  and  vague, 
and  that  motive  which  they  believe  dominant  a 
mere  illusion.  When  one  reflects  upon  the  un- 
determined centuries  during  which  mankind 
was  the  dupe  of  myth  and  superstition,  reading 
its  aims  in  the  light  of  the  imagined  promise 
of  some  tribal  god,  or  the  imagined  frown  of 
some  tribal  demon,  he  must  realize  how  idle  it 
would  be  to  accept  the  usually  declared  motives 
for  any  given  action.  When  barbarians,  like  the 
Jews  of  the  Mosaic  age,  battled  for  the  flocks 
and  fields  of  their  neighbors,  they  clothed  their 

opinion  is  destined  to  do  for  history  what  Darwin's  theory  has 
done  for  biology,  we  both  of  us  had  been  gradually  approaching 
for  some  years  before  1845.  .  .  .  But  when  I  again  met  Marx 
at  Brussels  in  the  spring  of  1845,  he  had  it  already  worked  out, 
and  put  it  before  me  in  terms  almost  as  clear  as  those  in  which 
1  have  stated  it  here."  The  doctrine  reappears  in  all  of  Marx's 
subsequent  works,  particularly  in  his  Contributions  to  the  Criti- 
cism of  Political  Economy  (1847)  an^  the  third  volume  of  Capi- 
tal (1894).  See  Seligman,  pp.  40-49. 

12 


THE   LESSON   FROM   HISTORY 

purpose  in  the  veil  of  a  divine  mission  under  a 
divine  order.  The  more  prosaic  Romans  partly 
realized  the  economic  basis  of  the  motives  for 
their  antagonism  to  Carthage ;  but  throughout 
the  middle  ages,  when  the  cloud  of  superstition 
again  lay  heavily  upon  men's  minds,  the  mo- 
tives to  which  the  workers  and  warriors  ascribed 
their  deeds,  and  which  the  chroniclers  attributed 
to  them,  were  in  most  cases  mere  imaginings. 

"  The  important  fact  is  that  history  itself  has  put 
on  these  veils;  that  is  to  say,  that  the  very  actors 
and  workers  of  the  historic  events  —  great  masses  of 
people,  directing  and  ordering  classes,  masters  of 
state,  sects  or  parties  .  .  . — if  we  make  exception 
for  an  occasional  moment  of  lucid  interval,  never  had 
up  to  the  end  of  the  past  century  a  consciousness  of 
their  own  work,  unless  it  be  through  some  ideologi- 
cal envelope  which  prevented  any  sight  of  the  real 
causes.  Already  at  the  distant  epoch  when  barbar- 
ism was  passing  over  into  civilization  .  .  .  even  then, 
at  the  epoch  of  all  the  first  social  revolutions,  men 
ideally  transformed  their  work,  seeing  in  it  the  mi- 
raculous acts  of  gods  and  heroes." 1 

To  this  day  men  give  themselves  up  to 
wounds  and  death  in  the  struggle  for  foreign 
markets,  under  the  belief  that  they  are  impelled 
by  patriotism  or  religion.  Ministers,  under  the 

1  Antonio  Labriola,  Essays  on  the  Materialistic  Conception 
of  History  (translated  by  Charles  H.  Kerr),  p.  105. 

13 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

delusion  that  they  are  interpreting  the  ethics 
of  Jesus,  but  actually  prompted  by  the  direct 
economic  pressure  of  conformity  to  the  views 
of  their  rich  parishioners,  preach  a  doctrine  of 
sanction  to  predatory  wealth,  and  urge  acquies- 
cence upon  protesting  labor.  Teachers,  econo- 
mists, in  their  search  for  truth,  too  often  find  it 
only  within  the  narrow  limits  which  are  pre- 
scribed by  endowments ;  while  judges,  in  their 
labor  of  interpreting  the  constitution,  are  not 
infrequently  brought  instead  to  an  interpreta- 
tion of  the  wish  and  will  of  the  dominant  eco- 
nomic class.  Oi^ly  as  men  emerge  from  the 
fogland  of  illusion  do  they  become  more  clearly 
conscious  of  the  real  motives  which  impel  them 
to  any  specific  course  of  action. 

IV 

Nor  is  it  contended  that  the  economic  factor 
is  the  sole  element  in  shaping  history.  Neither 
Marx  nor  Engels  ever  made  such  a  claim. 
"According  to  the  materialistic  view  of  his- 
tory," wrote  the  latter, — 

"the  factor  which  is,  in  last  instance,  decisive  in 
history  is  the  production  and  reproduction  of  actual 
life.  More  than  this  neither  Marx  nor  I  have  ever 
asserted.  But  when  any  one  distorts  this  so  as  to 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

read  that  the  economic  factor  is  the  sole  element,  he 
converts  the  statement  into  a  meaningless,  abstract, 
absurd  phrase.  The  economic  condition  is  the  basis, 
but  the  various  elements  of  the  superstructure  —  the 
political  forms  of  the  class  contests,  and  their  results, 
the  constitutions,  the  legal  forms,  and  also  all  the 
reflexes  of  these  actual  contests  in  the  brains  of  the 
participants,  the  political,  legal,  philosophical  theories, 
the  religious  views  —  all  these  exert  an  influence  on 
the  development  of  the  historical  struggles,  and  in  ,/ 
many  instances  determine  their  form."1 

That  idealistic  or  spiritual  forces  are  a  part 
of  the  causation  in  many  of  our  acts  and  beliefs, 
that  they  are  apparently  the  entire  causation  in 
other  acts  and  beliefs,  is  not  to  be  denied.  In- 
stances of  heroic  and  unselfish  actions  —  that  is, 
of  actions  prompted  by  ideals  —  crowd  thickly 
the  pages  of  history  in  all  periods,  in  peace  as 
well  as  war.  Nevertheless,  there  are  two  per-^ 
tinent  facts  not  to  be  lost  to  view.  First,  that 
all  of  our  idealistic  or  spiritual  conceptions 
(apart  from  conceptions  of  the  supernatural) 
have  their  origin  in  past  or  present  social 
needs,  and  these  in  turn  have  their  base  in 
economic  needs ;  and,  second,  that  everywhere 
and  always  the  economic  environment  limits 
the  range  and  effect  of  the  spiritual  forces.  It 

1  Quoted  by  Seligman  from  Der  Sozialistische  Akademiker, 
October  i,  1895. 

15 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

is  a  commonplace  of  sociologists  that  marriage 
(using  the  term  in  its  broadest  sense)  had  its 
origin  in  the  individualistic  accumulation  of 
property ;  and  thus  the  most  sacred  sentiments 
which  have  gradually  grown  up  about  our  ideas 
of  chastity  and  love  are  the  outcome  of  the 
desire  of  some  remote  savage  to  transmit  his 
overplus  of  fishhooks  and  arrows  to  a  legiti- 
mate heir.  Patriotism,  to  whatever  refinement 
it  comes,  by  whatever  degree  of  courage  or 
completeness  of  renunciation  it  manifests  itself, 
is  an  outgrowth  of  primitive  savage  instincts 
making  for  the  preservation  of  the  family  or 
the  group.  Our  notions  of  justice,  our  feelings 
of  consideration  for  others,  have  a  like  humble 
origin,  and  they  appear,  as  the  plants  appear, 
only  in  soil  favorable  to  their  growth. 

All  of  our  idealistic  conceptions  and  their 
resultant  acts  are  limited  by  our  economic 
surroundings.  "  Men  are  what  conditions  make 
them,"  writes  Professor  Seligman,  "  and  ethical 
ideals  are  not  exempt  from  the  same  inexorable 
law  of  environment."  1  No  Raphael  or  Shelley 

1  See  Seligman,  pp.  112-134.  Professor  Seligman's  study 
should  be  read  in  its  entirety  for  a  fuller  presentation  of  the 
theory  than  can  be  given  here,  but  particular  attention  should 
be  given  to  his  unanswerable  statement  regarding  the  spiritual 
factors  in  history.  The  monograph  is  a  scholarly  work,  worthy 
of  high  praise.  It  is  necessary  to  point  out,  however,  that  the 

16 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

appears  among  the  Esquimaux,  no  John  Howard 
among  the  Apaches.  A  religion  like  Christian- 
ity becomes  one  thing  in  feudal  England,  quite 
another  thing  in  capitalistic  England;  during 
the  same  period  it  takes  one  form  in  abolitionist 
New  Hampshire  and  a  vastly  different  form  in 
slaveholding  South  Carolina.  No  sentiments 
of  universal  brotherhood  arise  spontaneously  in 
a  working  community  threatened  with  Asiatic 
cheap  labor;  no  collectivist  ideals  are  voiced 
among  the  congregations  of  churches  endowed 
by  dukes  of  the  oil  realm  or  earls  of  the  tobacco 
fields. 

Ideals  do  indubitably  influence  and  prompt 
the  actions  of  men,  both  individually  and  in  the 
mass.  But  their  power  is  limited,  first,  by  the 
receptivity  of  the  mass  or  the  individual,  and 
second  by  the  prevailing  economic  obstacles. 
Ideals  act  as  stimuli  or  excitants  upon  stored-up 
feelings  and  convictions ;  and  these  feelings  and 
convictions  are  —  like  the  ideals  themselves, 
except  that  they  are  nearer  to  the  core  of  men's 
lives  —  a  product  of  the  social  life,  with  its  eco- 

author,  in  his  eagerness  to  divorce  the  economic  interpretation 
of  history  from  the  theory  of  Socialism,  has  made  certain  state- 
ments which  may  be  indulgently  characterized,  in  his  own  lan- 
guage, as  "  exceedingly  naive."  See,  on  this  subject,  a  caustic 
but  thorough  criticism  by  Austin  Lewis  in  The  International 
Socialist  Review,  May  and  June,  1903. 
c  17 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

nomic  base.  Where  there  are  no  stores  of 
responsive  feeling,  the  appeal  of  the  ideal  is 
impotent  and  vain ;  and  it  is  equally  impotent 
and  vain,  except  in  rare  cases,  where  the  eco- 
nomic structure  and  processes  are  such  that  the 
following  of  the  ideal  would  involve  material 
loss  or  pain. 

The  actual  and  immediate  effect  upon  indi- 
vidual conduct  of  the  preaching  of  ideals,  the 
following  of  which  would  involve  economic 
loss,  may  be  set  down  as,  in  the  main,  a  doubt- 
ful quantity.  There  are  exceptions,  wherein 
it  is  a  most  important  quantity,  as  all  know; 
but  for  all  that  they  are  but  exceptions.  In 
time,  when  certain  of  these  ideals  come  to  be 
generally  recognized  as  responding  to  social 
needs,  they  may  become  embodied  in  institu- 
tions or  laws ;  but  before  that  time  their  effect 
upon  the  conduct  of  the  individual  is  but  slight. 
Monthly,  weekly,  and  even  semi-weekly,  the 
111,942  clergymen  of  this  nation  hold  up  to 
their  congregations  certain  ideals  of  conduct 
between  man  and  man,  and  plead  that  these  be 
practised ;  and  they  are  ably  seconded  in  their 
exhortations  by  numbers  of  public  teachers  and 
advisers  such  as  Justice  Brewer,  Professor  Adler, 
and  Presidents  Eliot,  Hadley,  and  Roosevelt. 
But  it  is  doubtful  if  any  custom  or  practice 

18 


THE    LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

made  necessary  to  the  individual  by  economic 
pressure  has  ever  been  given  over  or  sensibly 
altered  by  reason  of  these  insistent  pleadings. 
There  are,  furthermore,  certain  ideal  pronounce- 
ments that  have  come  down  to  us  through  the 
ages,  and  that  might  well,  by  this  time,  have 
become  enfibred  in  the  race.  There  is  that 
picture  which  Ezekiel  drew,  twenty-five  hundred 
years  ago,  of  the  just  man :  — 

" .  .  .  And  hath  not  oppressed  any,  but  hath 
restored  to  the  debtor  his  pledge,  hath  spoiled  none 
by  violence,  hath  given  his  bread  to  the  hungry,  and 
hath  covered  the  naked  with  a  garment ; 

"  He  that  hath  not  given  forth  upon  usury,  neither 
hath  taken  any  increase,  that  hath  withdrawn  his 
hand  from  iniquity,  hath  executed  true  judgment 
between  man  and  man, 

"  Hath  walked  in  my  statutes,  and  hath  kept  my 
judgments,  to  deal  truly;  he  is  just,  he  shall  surely 
live,  saith  the  Lord  God." 

Over  and  over  again,  through  the  centuries, 
there  has  been  held  up  to  the  generations  of 
men  this  stern  moralist's  ideal  of  a  just  man. 
And  yet  it  may  be  doubted  if  ever  yet,  by  direct 
reason  of  it,  has  a  money-lender  declined  his 
interest,  a  trader  given  value  without  profit,  or 
a  conqueror  stayed  his  hand  upon  a  subjugated 
people.  Against  the  charge  for  interest  there 

19 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

is,  in  this  declaration,  "  a  prohibition  so  divine  ' 
that  it  might  well  "craven  the  hand"  of  him 
that  would  take  it.  But  can  any  one  say  that 
it  has  ever  had  upon  individual  or  community 
a  sensible  influence  affecting  the  charge  which 
those  that  have  exact  from  those  that  have 
not? 

There  is  that  other  Scriptural  declaration: 
"  [God]  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of 
men  for  to  dwell  on'  all  the  face  of  the  earth." 
Does  any  one  suppose  that  the  atavistic  hatred 
felt  for  the  negroes  in  this  nation,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  South,  has  ever  been  abated  in  the 
slightest  particular  by  a  recollection  of  this 
Scriptural  assertion  of  universal  brotherhood  ? 
Has  Portia's  beautiful  plea  for  mercy,  which 
every  English-speaking  schoolboy  has  had 
drilled  into  his  consciousness,  ever  relaxed  the 
exercise  of  the  power  which  the  landlord  holds 
over  his  debtor  tenant?  And  does  the  spire 
of  Trinity  Church,  or  the  benignant  face  of 
George  Washington,  looking  down  from  the 
Sub-Treasury  steps  upon  the  battling  multi- 
tudes about  Wall  and  Broad  streets,  in  New 
York  City,  soften  the  rigors  of  the  cannibalistic 
struggle  that  rages  there  day  after  day? 

He  would  be  an  infatuated  "  idealist "  who 
could  answer  yes.  The  ideal,  though  it  has  its 

20 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

influence  upon  belief  and  action,  is  everywhere 
limited  by  the  social,  and  fundamentally  by  the 
economic,  environment.  Whatever  may  be  our 
vague  inclinations,  our  nebulous  aspirations, 
toward  a  universal  moral  law,  the  stern  necessity 
imposed  by  the  economic  process  determines 
and  fixes  our  practical  ethics  and  controls  our 
actions.  So,  and  so  only,  is  the  ideal  a  factor ; 
and  so  only  does  it  qualify  the  economic 
force,  conditioned  by  its  environment,  as  the 
sole  factor  in  determining  human  affairs. 


But  though  not  the  sole  factor,  the  economic 
element  is  the  chief  determining  factor.  The 
economic  force  is  the  fundamental  prompter  of 
our  actions  ;  "  its  basal  character,"  to  repeat  the 
words  of  Dr.  Stuckenberg,  "  can  be  ignored  only 
by  ignorance  or  by  a  false  spiritualism  which 
itself  depends  on  economics  for  existence."  And 
as  the  economic  force  is  the  mainspring  of  action, 
so  the  economic  environment  —  that  is,  the  pre- 
vailing mode  of  production  and  exchange  —  is 
the  closely  enveloping  medium  which  conditions 
all  activity,  bodily  and  mental.  It  is  this  fun- 
damental and  inevitable  relation  of  economics 
to  life  which  makes  the  economic  force  and  its 
environment  so  mighty  a  factor  in  determining 

21 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

our  actions,  in  moulding  our  thoughts  and  ideals, 
and  in  forming  our  institutions. 

In  many  historic  regimes  and  in  particular 
episodes  the  dominance  of  this  influence  is  so 
evident  as  to  be  indisputable.  The  militant 
ideals  of  the  Spartans  were  necessitated  in  the 
constant  repression  of  the  Helots,  who  out- 
numbered them  ten  to  one.  In  the  long  strug- 
gle between  the  plebeians  and  the  patricians  in 
Rome,  the  revolts  of  the  English  serfs  in  1381, 
of  the  German  peasants  in  1524-1525,  and  of  the 
French  peasants  and  proletarians  in  1 789,  the 
economic  factor  is  almost  exclusive.  But  even 
in  historic  episodes  wherein,  by  the  ordinary 
reader,  its  presence  is  unsuspected,  closer  study 
will  often  reveal  it.  The  struggle  of  the  Parlia- 
mentarians against  Charles  I  developed  into  a 
class  war  of  the  yeomen  and  the  traders  against 
the  landed  gentry.  The  reaction  which  enabled 
Louis  Napoleon  to  convert  France  into  an  em- 
pire was  largely  a  movement  of  the  traders  and 
shopkeepers,  who  believed  that  the  pageantry 
of  an  empire  would  mean  increased  buying,  and 
who  were  supported  in  large  part  by  the  small 
farmers.  The  rise  of  Protestantism  in  middle 
Europe  during  the  sixteenth  century  was  in  great 
part  a  reflection  of  the  growth  of  commerce  and 
the  demand  for  greater  liberty  by  the  townsmen. 

22 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

"  We  know  to-day  that  the  Reformation  was  but  an 
episode  in  the  development  of  the  third  estate,  and 
an  economic  revolt  of  the  German  nation  against  the 
exploitation  of  the  Papal  Court.  He  [Martin  Luther] 
was  what  he  was,  as  an  agitator  and  politician,  be- 
cause he  was  wholly  taken  up  with  the  belief  which 
made  him  see  in  the  class  movement  which  gave  im- 
pulse to  the  agitation  a  return  to  true  Christianity 
and  a  divine  necessity  in  the  vulgar  course  of  events. 
The  study  of  remote  effects,  that  is  to  say,  the  increas- 
ing strength  of  the  bourgeoisie  of  the  cities  against 
the  feudal  lords,  the  increase  of  the  territorial  domin- 
ion of  the  princes  at  the  expense  of  the  inter-ter- 
ritorial and  super-territorial  power  of  the  Emperor 
and  the  Pope,  the  violent  repression  of  the  movement 
of  the  peasants  and  the  more  properly  proletarian 
movement  of  the  Anabaptists,  permit  us  now  to  re- 
construct the  authentic  history  of  the  economic  causes 
of  the  Reformation,  particularly  in  the  proportions 
which  it  took,  which  is  the  best  of  proofs."  1 

That  the  American  Revolution  was  prompted  | 
in  the  main  by  economic  motives  becomes  more 
certain  as  the  factors  contributing  to  the  out- 
break of  that  conflict  are  more  carefully  studied. 
Even  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787, 
according  to  Professor  Woodrow  Wilson,2  arose 
out  of  an  economic  need.  It  was  the  direct 

!  Labriola,  p.  108. 

I  Woodrow  Wilson,  article  on  "  Early  Migrations  Westward," 
Harper's  Magazine -,  September,  1902. 

23 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

outcome  of  the  convention  held  in  Alexandria, 
in  March,  1785,  between  commissioners  from 
Maryland  and  Virginia,  to  settle  difficulties 
growing  out  of  the  work  of  the  great  land- 
speculating  corporation,  the  Potomac  Company. 
That  the  political  revolt  which  seated  Jefferson 
in  the  presidency ;  that  the  similar  revolt, 
twenty-eight  years  later,  which  seated  Jackson, 
were  largely  economic,  is  generally  conceded. 
The  slavery  issue  itself  became  an  economic 
struggle.  Idealistic  factors  had  their  share  in 
the  passage  of  the  clause,  in  the  Ordinance  of 
1787,  prohibiting  slavery  in  the  Territory  North- 
west of  the  Ohio  River,  and  also  in  the  work 
of  the  Abolitionists.  But  the  issue  became,  as 
it  reached  its  climax,  a  conflict  between  two 
antagonistic  and  rapidly  expanding  systems  of 
production  for  the  control  of  the  Western 
territories.1 

Throughout  the  century  our  political  con- 
tests have  been  based  almost  wholly  on  eco- 

1  That  the  influence  of  the  economic  factor  is  often  exaggerated, 
and  that  to  it  are  often  ascribed  historic  episodes  wherein  it  has 
small  place,  are  not  to  be  denied.  Professor  Seligman  has  fur- 
nished a  number  of  such  instances.  An  unfortunate  attempt  of 
this  kind  is  the  ascription  of  an  ulterior  economic  motive  to  the 
agitation  in  the  United  States  for  the  Cuban  war.  No  one,  it 
may  be  said  emphatically,  who  knows  anything  of  the  real  history 
of  that  agitation,  and  of  the  forces  which  opposed  it,  can  have 
any  patience  with  such  an  allegation.  It  may  be  doubted  if  any 

24 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

nomic  differences,  and  they  have  revealed  an 
increasing  tendency  to  develop  clear-cut  divi- 
sions between  economic  classes.  The  Green- 
back party,  which  saw  its  best  days  between 
1872  and  1883,  was  in  the  main  a  movement 
of  small  farmers  and  small  producers  protest- 
ing against  the  growth  of  corporations.  The 
Farmers'  Alliance,  and  its  successor,  the  Peo- 
ple's party,  have  merely  emphasized  the  increas- 
ing volume  of  this  protest;  while  the  Bryan 
wing  of  the  Democratic  party  is  an  outgrowth 
of  the  same  movement.  The  Republican 
party,  though  its  rank  and  file  is  made  up  of 
wage-earners  and  middlemen,  has  become,  in  its 
guidance  and  control,  purely  a  class  movement 
for  the  furtherance  of  the  aims  and  interests  of 
the  greater  capitalists.  Finally,  the  Socialist 
party,  which  yearly  increases  its  numbers,  is  a 
clear  and  definite  class  movement,  founded  on 
the  economic  needs  and  aims  of  the  wage-earners. 
Constitutions,  laws,  juridical  institutions,  re- 
political  movement  in  the  world's  history  was  so  clearly  and 
unqualifiedly  a  product  of  an  awakened  sense  of  justice  and  hu- 
manity. The  attempt  to  read  into  it  economic  motives  merely 
illustrates  the  proneness  of  certain  minds  to  force  facts  into  accord 
with  a  preconceived  theory.  It  may,  however,  be  readily  admitted 
that  somewhat  different  conditions  in  the  United  States  would 
have  resulted  in  a  totally  different  outcome.  It  happened  that 
there  was  no  adverse  economic  motive  prevalent  at  the  time  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  obstruct  the  exercise  of  this  altruistic  motive. 

25 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

veal  quite  as  close  dependence  upon  economic 
conditions  as  do  wars,  treaties,  and  the  conflict 
of  political  parties.  As  the  Revolution  ex- 
pressed a  resistance  to  economic  oppression, 
so  the  early  state  constitutions  reflected  the 
economic  structure  of  the  time.  Its  individu- 
alism, its  freedom  of  contract  among  political 
equals,  its  dependent  labor  on  the  one  hand 
and  its  independent  ownership  on  the  other, 
are  written  large  in  those  organic  laws.  Thus, 
in  spite  of  the  idealistic  principles  of  democ- 
racy, brotherhood,  and  equality  voiced  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  these  early  con- 
stitutions expressed  the  political  form  of  the 
supposed  economic  needs  of  the  ruling  trades- 
men and  planters.  Their  economic  needs 
clashed  with  their  democratic  ideals,  and  they 
could  not  suffer  themselves  to  be  governed  by 
propertyless  men.  "  It  was  indeed  true,"  satir- 
ically writes  Professor  McMaster,  "that  all 
governments  derived  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed ;  yet  under  these 
early  state  constitutions  none  but  tax-paying, 
property-owning  men  could  give  that  consent 
from  which  government  derives  its  just  powers." 
The  property  qualification  was  laid  down  not 
only  for  the  franchise,  but  for  office-holding. 
The  requirements  for  eligibility  to  membership 

26 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

in  the  lower  house  of  the  Legislatures  varied 
from  the  possession  of  an  estate  valued  at  ^100 
(New  Hampshire)  to  that  of  an  estate  of  five 
hundred  acres,  with  ten  negro  slaves,  or  of  an 
estate  worth  £150  clear  of  debt  (South  Caro- 
lina). For  the  upper  house  these  figures  were 
usually  doubled,  and  as  for  the  governor,  "in 
one  state  he  must  own  property  worth  ^100,  in 
another  ^500,  in  another  £"5000,  and  in  South 
Carolina  ,£10,000.  .  .  .  The  poor  man  counted 
for  nothing.  He  was  governed,  but  not  with 
his  consent,  by  his  property-owning,  Christian 
neighbors."1  Offences  against  property,  too, 
were  rigorously  punished,  and,  despite  occa- 
sional prohibitions  of  "cruel  and  unusual 
punishments,"  what  was  currently  known  as 
"justice"  was  meted  out  with  a  heavy  hand. 
The  change  toward  manhood  suffrage,  the 
abolition  of  the  property  qualification,  and 
toward  the  humane  treatment  of  offenders 
against  property  came  slowly.  It  was  a  change 
but  slightly  influenced  by  idealistic  factors,  as 

1  John  Bach  McMaster,  three  lectures  delivered  at  Western 
Reserve  University  (1903)  on  The  Acquisition  of  the  Political, 
Social,  and  Industrial  Rights  of  Man  in  America .  These  lectures 
contain  the  most  complete  and  scholarly  summary  of  the  facts  of 
the  early  class  struggles  in  the  United  States  that  has  yet  ap- 
peared. See  also  the  pamphlet,  Class  Struggles  in  America,  by 
A.  M.  Simons  (Chicago,  1903). 

27 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

any  one  can  discover  by  reading  the  history 
of  the  early  agitations.  It  came,  instead,  by 
reason  of  a  resistless  pressure  from  below, 
which  finally  forced  concessions. 

War,  which  we  are  prone  to  think  of  as 
prompted  by  innate  savagery,  or  by  false  ideals 
of  courage  or  honor,  is  found  to  be  generally 
motived  by  economic  need.  It  was  so  in  re- 
mote times,  and  it  is  increasingly  so  in  modern 
times.  New  readings,  in  the  light  of  modern 
thought,  of  such  standard  books  of  travels  as 
the  journals  of  Alexander  Mackenzie,  Daniel 
Harmon,  and  Lewis  and  Clark,  show  clearly 
and  unmistakably  the  economic  nature  of  nearly 
all  the  wars  of  the  Indians  of  the  Northwest. 
Though  the  wretched  superstitions  connected 
with  the  "  blood  revenge "  bore  some  part  in 
the  causes  of  these  conflicts,  yet  the  desire  for 
one  another's  property,  such  as  horses  and 
hunting  lands,  was  generally  dominant.  Like 
testimony  is  borne  by  other  .travellers  regard- 
ing the  aborigines  of  Africa  and  Australia. 
But  it  is  among  civilized  men  of  the  last  two 
centuries  that  this  cause  becomes  almost  ex- 
clusive as  an  inciter  of  war.  Markets  must  be 
had  for  the  increasing  production  of  goods, 
and  to  open  up  new  markets,  and  to  hold  them 
from  other  nations  with  goods  to  sell,  a  nation 

28 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

must  be  hourly  ready  to  do  battle.  There  was 
scarcely  a  conflict  of  the  nineteenth  century 
in  which  the  economic  cause  was  not  domi- 
nant. Though  the  Cuban  war  began  and  was 
prosecuted  in  an  outburst  of  humane  senti- 
ment, it  is  probable  that  in  its  continuation, 
for  the  holding  of  the  Philippines,  economic 
considerations  -dominated  the  administration. 


VI 

That  morals  have  their  base  in  economic 
conditions  has  already  been  indicated;  but  a 
further  word  is  needed  regarding  purely  in- 
dustrial ethics.  The  prevailing  mode  of  pro- 
duction determines  in  large  part  what  is  moral 
and  what  immoral,  and  the  ruling  class  are 
always  the  formulaters  of  the  code.  The 
workers,  out  of  the  direct  necessities  of  their 
working  life,  develop  an  ethic  of  their  own. 
The  sense  of  fellowship,  the  desire  to  be 
helpful  and  to  protect  one  another,  the  con- 
viction that  none  should  receive  incomes 
without  work,  are  the  natural  and  inevitable 
product  of  the  associative  work  of  masses  of 
men  under  like  conditions  of  employment. 
And  in  so  far  as  may  be,  allowing  for  all  the 
adverse  factors  that  operate  against  them,  the 

29 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

lives  of  the  workers  are  lived  according  to 
these'  ethics.  But  the  ethical  concepts  of 
any  particular  time  which  are  taught  in  the 
schools,  preached  from  the  pulpits,  embodied 
in  laws,  in  institutions,  and  fti  general  social 
customs,  are  never  those  of  the  slaves  or  serfs 
or  proletarians,  but  those  of  the  owners,  lords, 
or  employers.  The  class  origin  of  general 
morality  is  maintained  by  John  Stuart  Mill, 
a  man  who  perhaps  never  heard  of  the  eco- 
nomic interpretation  of  history : 1  — 

"Wherever  there  is  an  ascendant  class,  a  large 
portion  of  the  morality  emanates  from  its  class 
interests  and  its  class  feelings  of  superiority.  The 
morality  between  Spartans  and  Helots,  between 
planters  and  negroes,  between  princes  and  subjects, 
between  nobles  and  roturiers,  between  men  and 
women,  has  been  for  the  most  part  the  creation 
of  these  class  interests  and  feelings."  2 

Wherever  we  look  in  history,  we  find  at  least 
two  sets  of  virtues  and  vices  —  one  for  the  work- 
ing class  and  one  for  the  enjoying  class.  The 
code  imposed  on  the  workers  changes  in  some 
respects  from  one  economic  regime  to  another. 
Under  feudalism  it  required  a  fixed  status,  with 
attachment  to  the  soil,  and  therefore  fidelity. 

1  Leslie  Stephen,  The  Utilitarians,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  224. 

2  John  Stuart  Mill,  On  Liberty. 

30 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY1 

Under  private  capital,  which  will  not  undertake 
the  maintenance  of  its  laborers,  fidelity  becomes 
a  burden.  What  is  wanted  is  dissociation  from 
all  ties,  so  that  labor  can  be  instantly  hired  or 
discharged,  as  capital  wills.  As  a  consequence, 
the  passion  for  "  freedom  "  and  "  independence  " 
—  by  which  is  meant  freedom  from  and  inde- 
pendence of  organized  bodies  of  workmen  —  is 
fostered  from  above.  But  in  all  times  and  places 
the  imposed  code  recognizes  in  the  workers 
two  prime  virtues,  industry  and  obedience,  and 
two  prime  vices,  laziness  and  insubordination. 
Under  slavery  either  of  these  two  vices  was 
punished,  or  at  least  punishable,  by  death;  and 
though  in  modern  times  this  punishment  has 
been  abolished,  owing  to  the  gradual  conquest  of 
political  power  by  the  workers,  it  is  doubtful  if 
upper-class  sentiment  in  the  matter  has  greatly 
altered.  There  are,  at  this  day,  in  this  land,  tens 
of  thousands  of  persons  living  off  rent,  inter- 
est, or  profits,  who  look  upon  a  strike  of  work- 
men with  much  the  same  horror  and  detestation 
that  the  ruling  class  of  a  few  generations  ago 
looked  upon  a  servile  insurrection.  In  the  eyes 
of  such  persons  Mr.  Mitchell  and  Mr.  Gompers 
are  quite  as  odious  and  gallows-worthy  char- 
acters as  were  Nat  Turner  and  John  Brown  to 
the  slaveholders  of  the  South.  Only  a  few 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

months  ago,  before  a  presumably  cultured  audi- 
ence in  New  York  City,  the  president  of  the 
United  Mine  Workers  was  denounced  as  the 
"  leader  of  the  Mitchell  insurrection,"  and  it  was 
charged  that  he  had  tried  to  shield  the  "  slug- 
gers, dynamiters,  and  murderers  in  the  anthracite 
and  other  coal  strikes."  ..."  Gentlemen,"  said 
this  faithful  reflector  of  upper-class  sentiment, 

"  I  submit  to  you  the  question,  Is  not  the  record  of  or- 
ganized labor  so  stained  with  injustice,  oppression,  and 
crime,  including  treason,  as  to  make  its  existence  in  its 
present  form  a  curse  to  any  civilized  community  ? "  1 

The  president  of  the  National  Association  of 
Manufacturers  gives  voice,  almost  daily,  to  like 
expressions,  and  his  words  are  eagerly  recorded 
in  all  the  important  newspapers  of  the  land. 
"  It  is  true,"  he  declared  a  year  ago, 

"  that  the  workmen  of  this  country  were  learning  that 
for  the  millions  of  dollars  they  pay  in  salaries  to  the 
agitators,  they  are  receiving  in  return  nothing  but 
ceaseless  trouble,  enforced  idleness,  and  loss  of 
the  comforts  of  life.  They  are  also  bidding  for  the 
destruction  of  their  most  precious  possession  —  that 
of  industrial  liberty."'2' 

1  Address  of  John  Kirby,  Jr.,  chairman  of  the  National  Citi- 
zens' Industrial  Association,  before  the  Universalist  Club,  January 
25,  1904.     (New  York  Times  report.) 

2  Address  of  D.  M.  Parry  before  the  Chautauqua  Association, 
August  12,  1903.     (New  York  Times  report.) 

32 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

There  are,  of  course,  others  of  the  employing 
class  who  have  come  to  a  more  tolerant  view  of 
workmen's  collective  action.  But  the  saner 
view  does  not  necessarily  involve  a  funda- 
mental change  of  feeling.  It  has  been  reached 
largely  because  the  phenomena  of  strikes  are 
seen  to  be  inevitable  and  must  therefore  be 
endured.  And  yet  it  must  be  suspected  that  even 
among  these  persons,  though  hard  economic 
necessity  compels  an  attitude  of  tolerance,  there 
are  frequent  recurrences  to  a  more  primitive  and 
ardent  feeling — the  passion  to  retaliate  with  force. 
This  is  evidently  the  view  of  a  certain  prominent 
newspaper  of  Chicago,  which  recently  printed 
an  editorial  containing  the  following  paragraph  : 

"  It  is  not  unlikely  that  sometimes  the  Northern 
employer,  threatened  with  bankruptcy  or  great  loss 
by  his  inability  to  make  men  work  for  him  when  he 
thinks  they  ought  to  do  so,  has  wished  in  the  bottom 
of  his  heart  that  he  could  take  a  whip  to  them  and 
scourge  them  to  their  task,  and  has  felt  that  it  would 
really  benefit  them  as  well  as  himself  if  they  could 
be  made  to  quit  loafing.  No  Northern  employer  will 
utter  such  sentiments,  for  they  would  make  him  un- 
popular, but  he  may  sometimes  envy  the  Southern 
planter  his  simple  method  of  getting  labor." 

Industry  and    obedience  are    thus   the   two  j 
eternal  virtues,  and  under  the  present  regime  ' 

33 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"liberty"  —  that  is,  dissociation  from  other 
workers  —  is  the  one  status  or  "  right "  which 
the  economic  needs  of  the  employers  demand 
for  the  workers ;  and  all  that  interferes  there- 
with is,  according  to  employ  ing-class  morality, 
of  the  nature  of  sedition  and  sin. 


VII 

There  are  those  who  reject  the  economic 
interpretation  of  history  on  the  ground  that  it 
is  something  "  sordid,"  "  gross,"  and  "  mean." 
They  reject  it,  but  they  testify  to  its  truth  in 
their  hourly  actions  and  in  their  familiar  talk. 
"  There  are  tricks  in_alL trades,"  we  say,  bliss- 
fully unconscious  that  we  are  acknowledging 
the  fact  that  an  assumed  standard  of  ethics  is 
being  universally  overborne  by  reason  of  the 
necessities  of  the  economic  environment.  We 
all  admit  that  prosperity  brings  a  contented 
electorate,  depression  a  discontented  and  venge- 
ful one ;  and  that  this  more  or  less  intelligent 
electorate  invariably  wreaks  upon  the  party  in 
power  stern  retribution  for  the  visitations  of 
grasshoppers,  drouth,  floods,  or  prairie  fires. 
Whatever  their  political  ideals,  the  voters  re- 
spond promptly  and  overwhelmingly  to  the 
spur  of  economic  injury.  We  testify,  in  our 

34 


THE   LESSON    FROM    HISTORY 

familiar  talk,  to  the  almost  universal  prevalence 
of  "  graft,"  and  to  the  fact  that  all  whom  we 
know  are  guided  or  influenced  in  their  general 
course  of  conduct  by  the  special  requirements  of 
the  particular  means  they  have  of  makingaliving. 
And  yet  an  instinctive  recoil  is  felt  when 
from  these  universally  acknowledged  facts  is 
inferred  a  principle  of  history.  It  is  just  such 
a  recoil  as  was  felt  a  generation  and  a  half  ago 
on  the  appearance  of  the  Origin  of  Species. 
For  the  human  race  to  find  its  origin  in  the 
lower  animals  was  felt  to  be  something  "  mate- 
rial "  and  "low";  it  was  far  "nobler"  and 
"  higher  "  to  believe  in  a  divinely  created  pair, 
on  whose  progeny,  in  the  somewhat  irreverent 
words  of  Colonel  Ingersoll,  "  the  Almighty  has 
been  losing  money  ever  since."  But  the  idea 
of  evolution  lost  most  of  its  terrors  by  familiari- 
zation ;  it  has  come  to  be  generally  accepted, 
while  to  liberal  theology  it  has  ceased  to  be  a 
pain  and  has  become  instead  a  solace.  Intelli- 
gent persons  no  longer  inquire,  Is  it  "  low "  ? 
or,  Is  it  "high"?  but,  Is  it  true?  And  so,  in 
the  fulness  of  time  must  they  come  to  a  rational 
attitude  regarding  the  economic  interpretation 
of  history.  That  it  is  not  possible,  in  the 
present  state  of  knowledge,  to  separate,  in  all 
historic  episodes,  the  materialistic  from  the 

35 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

idealistic  factors;  that  such  is  the  complexity 
of  life  that  motives  cannot  always  be  analyzed, 
may  be  conceded.  But  the  sceptics  who,  for 
this  reason,  reject  the  .doctrine,  may  profitably 
reflect  upon  the  fact  that  while  organic  evolu- 
tion^ is  almost  everywhere  acknowledged  by 
intelligent  men,  yet  the  conflict  between  the 
Neo-Lamarckians  and  the  Weismannians  as  to 
the  factors  and  method  of  that  process  is  still 
being  waged  and  bids  fair  to  continue. 

The  doctrine  of  economic  interpretation  has 
.  revolutionized  history.  The  basic  facts  regard- 
ing the  life  and  work  of  the  people  of  past 
epochs,  which  were  slighted  by  so  many  genera- 
tions of  historians,  are  gradually  being  brought 
to  light,  and  a  new  understanding  is  attained 
of.  the  forces  which  have  determined  political 
events.  It  has  also  revolutionized  economics, 
and  it  is  reconstructing  sociology.  By  reason 
of  it  we  now  begin  to  understand  the  sequen- 
tial changes  in  the  various  forms  of  production, 
and  we  .are  learning  the  laws  by  which  men 
associate  in  communities  and  by  which  their 
institutions  develop.  It  explains  contradic- 
tions which  before  were  inexplicable.  It  at 
once  translates  the  cryptic  records  of  the  past, 
and  makes  plain  the  process  and  the  pathway 
of  future  progress. 

36 


CHAPTER   II 

CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

IT  is  a  part  of  the  economic  interpretation  of 
history  to  hold  that  since  the  dissolution  of 
primitive  tribal  society,  social  processes  have 
inevitably  grouped  men  in  economic  classes. 
An  economic  class  is  an  aggregate  of  persgns 
whose  occupation  has  the  same  bearing  on  the 
I  supply  of  things  wanted  by  mankind,  and  who 
Jin  that  occupation  sustain  the  same  relation 
toward  other  persons.  [6r,  in  other  words,  it  is 
-an  aggregate  of  persons  whose  specific  economic 
functions  and  interests  are  similar,  and  who, 
therefore,  bear  a  common  relation  to  the  pre-  * 
vailing  economic  system.  In  all  communities 
of  persons  who  produce  goods  for  individual 
profit  there  exists,  necessarily,  an  antagonism 
of  material  interests.  These  persons  may  have 
like  general  interests ;  as  consumers  they  will 
all  want  goods  at  low  prices ;  they  may  equally 
desire  peace,  prosperity,  and  health ;  they  may 
have  an  equal  interest  in  salubrity  of  climate 

37 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

and  fertility  of  soil.  But  their  particular  inter- 
ests vary  and  conflict  in  accord  with  the  differ- 
ent methods  by  which  the  individuals  secure 
their  living.  The  diversity  and  antagonism  of 
kinds  of  interest  and  function  determine  class 
divisions.  I 

The'l'nrerests  of  a  geographical  section  are 
of  a  different  character  from  the  specific  inter- 
ests of  a  class.  That  all  the  inhabitants  of 
Alabama  are  benefited  by  the  development  of 
the  iron  industry  of  that  state  may  be  true; 
but  the  fact  alters  in  no  way  the  nature  of  the 
economic  relation  between  the  iron-workers 
and  the  mill-owners.  The  cotton  industry  of 
Georgia  is  a  sectional  interest  in  which  all  the 
inhabitants  of  that  state  may  be  deeply  con- 
cerned ;  but  the  wretched  peons  who  pick  the 
cotton  and  the  masters  who  reap  the  profits 
have  functions  entirely  apart  and  specific  inter- 
ests directly  opposed.  The  Bryan  movement 
of  1896,  and  to  a  less  extent  that  of  1900,  were 
in  large  part  sectional.  They  were  not,  how- 
ever, in  any  specific  sense,  class  movements. 
Men  of  all  classes  were  comprised  therein,  and 
in  not  the  slightest  degree  were  class  lines 
shifted  or  class  relations  modified  throughout 
the  South  and  West,  where  these  movements 
developed  their  greatest  strength.  The  Civil 

38 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

War,  too,  was  prompted  by  a  sectional  interest, 
and  that  in  turn  was  based  on  an  economic 
interest.  Moreover,  as  between  the  controlling 
forces  on  each  side,  it  was,  in  the  main,  a  class 
conflict.  But  within  each  of  the  two  warring 
sections  were  widely  separated  economic  classes, 
whose  boundaries  and  relations  (except  those 
of  the  slaves)"  remained  unaltered  by  the  strug- 
gle. In  no  other  instance,  perhaps,  in  modern 
times  have  classes  with  interests  so  funda- 
mentally opposed  as  were  those  of  the  various 
Southern  classes  made  common  cause  in  a 
great  war;  and  the  truth  embodied  in  the 
adage,  "  This  is  a  rich  man's  war,  but  a  poor 
man's  fight,"  which  Ex-Secretary  Herbert  tells 
us  became  a  common  saying  in  the  South  at 
the  time,  was  gradually  driven  home  to  the 
consciousness  of  every  intelligent  poor  man 
who  bore  his  part  in  that  conflict.1  In  present 
times,  under  the  increasing  stress  of  the  indus- 
trial struggle,  class  feeling  conquers  both  sec- 
tional and  national  feeling.  It  overleaps  the 
boundaries  of  sections,  and  even  of  nations,  and 
among  both  capitalists  and  workmen  embodies 

1  General  John  H.  Gordon,  in  his  Reminiscences,  denies  that 
this  conviction  prevailed  to  any  considerable  extent  in  the  South. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  his  views  and  interests,  as  a  member  of 
the  old  ruling  class  of  that  section,  would  strongly  tend  to  render 
him  oblivious  to  a  prevailing  conviction  of  that  kind. 

39 


AND  0LASS 

itself  in  national  and  international  affiliations  of 
men  of  a  common  economic  interest. 

Class  membership  is  based  on  similarity  of 
specific  functions  and  interests.  But  the  units 
of  a  class  may  be  engaged  in  a  great  diversity 
of  occupations.  Baker  and  compositor,  iron- 
moulder  and  carpenter,  are  alike  units  of  the 
class  of  wage-earning  producers.  Their  spe- 
cific function,  despite  the  varying  technic  of 
their  labor,  is  that  of  producing  goods  for 
wages;  their  specific  interests  are  alike,  and 
they  all  bear  a  like  relation  to  the  economic 
system.  ^All  owners  of  the  tools  of  production 
used  by  other  men  are  of  one  class;  all  self- 
employing  producers  are  of  another.  So,  too, 
all  slaves,  whether  men  employed  in  picking 
cotton,  or  women  employed  in  nursing  their 
master's  children,  were  of  the  same  class.) 
Whatever  the  nature  of  their  toil,  whjStfe^er 
the  degree  of  trust  in  which  they  were  held  by 
their  owners,  they  were  alike  in  that  they  had 
common  interests,  a  common  function  in  doing 
what  they  were  bid,  and  a  common  relation  of 
absolute  dependence. 

I 

The  earliest  appearance  of  an  economic  class 
is  in  the  form  of  slavery.     Under  pure  savagery 

40 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

slavery  is  but  rare  and  incidental ;  it  is  possible, 
and  perhaps  probable,  that  slave  classes  begin 
to  appear  with  the  conquest  of  peoples  who 
have  developed  tribal  industries  —  that  is,  the 
craft  of  making  some  one  product  in  which  all 
the  working  members  of  a  tribe  engage.  A 
tribe  skilled  in  a  certain  craft  is  conquered  by 
a  rival  tribe,  covetous  of  its  product,  and  is 
henceforth  compelled  to  produce  for  its  con- 
querors. Tribal  industries  appear  at  a  very 
early  time  in  the  history  of  mankind,  certainly 
as  early  as  the  period  of  so-called  "  hoe  culture." 
With  the  subsequent  development  of  agricul- 
ture comes  the  need  of  workers  in  the  fields  ; 
and  other  adjacent  tribes  are  conquered  and 
enslaved.  Classes  also  arise  under  the  divi- 
sion of  labor  consequent  upon  the  growth  of 
individual  industry  and  the  accumulation  of 
property;  but  this  is  indisputably  a  later 
process,  requiring  a  more  peaceful  and  stable 
society.  Classes  are  thus  formed  under  either  . 
peace  or  war,  in  the  former  case  through 
the  accumulation  of  individual  property,  in 
the  latter  case  through  tribal  or  racial 
conquest.  . 

Whenever  these  conquests  occurred,  among 
post-primitive  tribes,  they  usually  resulted  in  a 
more  or  less  complete  subjection  of  the  de- 

4i 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

feated.1  Whatever  the  previous  gradation  of 
classes  among  the  vanquished,  the  quartering 
upon  them  of  a  new  ruling  class  generally 
meant  an  almost  uniform  levelling  to  the  status 
of  slavery,  serfdom,  or  peasanthood.  Even  in 
comparatively  recent  times  this  form  of  subjec- 
tion has  sometimes  resulted.  Such  a  conquest, 
for  instance,  was  that  of  the  English  Saxons  by 
William  of  Normandy.  "  Within  the  lifetime 
of  William,  ...  of  his  two  sons,  .  .  .  and  the 
nominal  reign  of  Stephen,"  writes  Professor 
Cheney,  "  the  whole  body  of  the  nobility,  the 
bishops  and  abbots,  and  the  government  offi- 
cials had  come  to  be  of  Norman  or  other  con- 
tinental origin."2  Even  the  architects  and 
skilled  artisans,  and  perhaps  most  of  the  mer- 
chants, were  Normans.  The  great  body  of  the 
Anglo-Saxons  had  been  reduced  for  the  time 
to  the  status  of  an  inferior  class. 

1  The  "  struggle  of  races,"  or,  to  be  more  accurate,  the  "  strug- 
gle of  tribes,"  is  strongly  depicted  in  Professor  Ward's  Pure 
Sociology,  though  the  author  neglects  its  economic  implications. 
Biicher's  studies  are  much  more  to  the  point.     See  particularly 
the  chapter  on  "  The  Formation  of  Social  Classes  "  in  his  Indus- 
trial Evolution.    Kropotkin's  two  chapters  on  "  Mutual  Aid  among 
Savages"  and  "Mutual  Aid  among  Barbarians,"  in  his  Mutual 
Aid,  A  Factor  of  Evolution,  while  in  many  respects  illuminative, 
are  unsatisfactory  on  the  purely  economic  side. 

2  Edward   P.    Cheney,  An  Introduction  to  the   Industrial 
and  Social  History  of  England,  p.   16.    Scott  gives  a  some- 

42 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

But  in  later  times,  coincident  with  the  firmer 
establishment  of  political  states  and  the  devel- 
opment of  more  stable  forms  of  industry,  con- 
quest has  affected  classes  less  and  less.  Even 
the  many  conquests  in  feudal  times  for  the  most 
part  merely  supplanted  one  set  of  rulers  by 
another,  effecting  by  taxation  or  tribute  the 
exploitation  of-  the  defeated,  and  leaving  the 
serfs,  tenants,  and  overseers  who  escaped  death 
in  their  former  tenures  and  employments.  And 
as  feudalism  passed  away,  and  a  new  form  of 
production  arose,  these  classes  were  naturally 
transformed  to  meet  new  needs.  There  is  thus 
traceable  in  the  more  civilized  lands,  but  par- 
ticularly in  England  and  Germany,  where  eco- 
nomic development  has  proceeded  along  com- 
paratively regular  lines,  a  historic  continuity  of 
classes.  "  Out  of  the  slave  class,  as  it  was  or- 
ganized by  the  Romans  in  the  countries  sub- 
ject to  the  Empire,"  writes  Professor  Ingram, 
"the  modern  proletariat  has  been  historically 
evolved."1  From  villeins  to  peasants,  from 
free  tenants  to  yeomen  or  small  landholders, 
from  retainers  to  professional  men,  is  a  common 
and  discernible  evolution.  There  are  breaks  in 

what  different  view  in  his  Ivanhoe,  but  it  is  likely  that  he  was 
mistaken. 

1  J.  K.  Ingram,  article  on  "  Slavery,"  Encyclopedia  Britannica. 

43 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

the  process,  it  is  true,  due  to  the  rise  or  fall  of 
individuals  from  one  class  to  another;  to  the 
expansion  of  industry,  which  has  created  en- 
tirely new  classes,  and  to  the  overrunning  of 
communities  and  sections  by  hordes  of  alien 
workers,  displacing  the  resident  workers.  But 
as  under  a  particular  form  of  production  the 
position  of  a  class  in  its  relation  to  the  other 
strata  of  society  remains  generally  constant,  so, 
too  (allowing  for  such  modifying  factors  as  dis- 
placement due  to  capitalist  concentration  and 
alien  immigration,  and  the  freer  opportunities 
common  to  new  countries),  does  its  hereditary 
personnel.  The  children  take  up  the  work  of 
their  fathers  and  carry  it  on  to  the  next  gen- 
eration ;  and  though  the  son  of  a  physician 
becomes  a  civil  engineer  or  a  lawyer,  the  son 
of  a  baker  becomes  a  shoemaker  or  a  book- 
binder, while  troops  of  boys  from  the  towns 
and  country  flock  to  industrial  positions  in 
the  cities,  yet  the  general  vocational  class  of 
the  great  mass  of  fathers  and  sons  remains  the 


same.1 


Even  in  America,  despite  its  comparatively 
brief  history,  its  less  regular  economic  condi- 
tions, and  its  constant  influx  of  immigrants,  the 
\    evidences  of  class  heredity  are  abundanti     Let 

1  See  Bucher,  pp.  334-335-  A 

44 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

one  take,  for  instance,  any  stable  community  in 
the  Middle  West,  where  the  refinement  of  mod- 
ern industrial  processes  has  not  as  yet  caused 
a  wholesale  expropriation  of  the  "  middle  class," 
and  compare  its  character  to-day  with  that  of 
twenty  or  thirty  years  ago.  He  will  find  that 
though  the  population  has  undergone  consider- 
able change,  and  though  the  variety  and  num- 
ber of  occupations  have  greatly  increased,  yet 
the  farmers  of  to-day  are  in  large  part  the  sons 
or  grandsons  or  other  heirs  of  the  farmers  of 
yesterday,  and  that  the  mercantile,  professional, 
and  even  artisan  and  laboring  classes  show  a 
like  heredity  of  vocation.  That  individual 
exceptions,  due  sometimes  to  signal  ability,  but 
more  often  to  chance,  are  many,  is  not  to  be 
disputed ;  but  they  are  rare  compared  with  the 
instances  that  make  the  rule.  The  social 
influences  centring  about  the  life  of  a  boy 
tend  strongly  to  conform  him  to  his  father's 
class ;  and  when  to  these  are  added  the  more 
powerful  determinant  of  economic  influences, 
there  is  small  chance  of  escape.  The  child  of 
the  artisan  has  one  environment,  the  child  of  the 
lawyer  another.  Each  feels,  thinks,  and  acts  in 
greater  or  less  conformity  to  his  particular  sur- 
roundings ;  and  when  the  time  is  reached  that 
the  child's  future  is  decided  upon,  it  is  the 

45 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

income  and  the  intellectual  training  of  the 
lawyer  which  determine  a  professional  career 
for  his  child,  and  the  lesser  income  and  lesser 
intellectual  training  of  the  artisan  which  deter- 
mine for  his  child  a  life  of  manual  labor.1 


II 

The  first  classes  in  America  were  the  prod- 
uct of  an  older  civilization,  and  were  imposed 
on  our  social  life  at  its  beginning.  The  May- 
flower brought  in  indentured  servants,  and  in 
the  previous  year  a  cargo  of  negro  slaves  was 
sold  in  Jamestown.  The  status  of  the  white 
servants  was  little  better  than  that  of  slaves. 
During  the  term  of  their  bound  service  "  they 
were  worked  hard,  were  dressed  in  the  cast-off 

1  Such  common  exceptions  as  those  of  country  boys,  among 
the  thousands  that  yearly  flock  to  the  cities,  who  attain  some 
measure  —  occasionally  a  large  measure  —  of  so-called  success, 
will  readily  occur  to  most  readers.  It  should  be  remembered, 
however,  that  it  is,  at  least  numerically,  if  not  intellectually,  the 
exceptional  boy  who  leaves  the  farm,  while  the  mass  remain 
behind ;  that  among  these  sifted  ones  it  is  again  the  exceptional 
one  who  succeeds  in  invading  a  "  higher  "  class,  the  greater  num- 
ber merely  passing  from  farm  labor  to  clerical,  mechanical,  or 
common  labor  in  the  cities ;  and  finally,  that  among  those  who 
succeed,  by  far  the  greater  number  are  those  whose  parents  were 
in  a  financial  position  to  give  their  children  an  education  or 
technical  training.  Another  class  of  exceptions  is  furnished  by 
the  children  of  the  sweatshop  immigrants  on  the  lower  East  Side 
of  New  York  City. 

46 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

clothes  of  their  owners,  and  might  be  flogged 
as  often  as  the  master  or  mistress  thought  nec- 
essary. .  .  .  The  newcomer  became  in  the 
eyes  of  the  law  a  slave,  and  in  both  the  civil  and 
criminal  code  was  classed  with  negro  slaves  and 
Indians.1  .  .  .  They  were  frequently  sold  to 
speculators,  who  drove  them,  chained  together 
sometimes,  through  the  country,  from  farm  to 
farm,  in  search  of  a  purchaser."  For  nearly  two 
hundred  years  this  traffic  was  maintained,2  con- 
tinually adding  to  the  servile  white  class  of  the 
North,  as  the  importations  of  negroes  at  the 
South  kept  adding  to  the  servile  class  of  that 
section. 

At  the  end  of  their  term  of  service  these 
servants  sought  work  for  themselves.  Many 
of  them  drifted  West  and  took  up  land,  many 
struggled  into  small  businesses,  or  developed 

1  McMaster,  The  Acquisition  of  the  Political,  Social,  and  In- 
dustrial Rights  of  Man  in  America,  pp.  34-35.     So  McMaster 
writes,  but  Miss  Salmon,  in  her  excellent  work,  Domestic  Service, 
gives  many  instances   of  laws,   even  of   early  colonial  times, 
designed  to  guard  servants  against  oppression.     Such  laws,  how- 
ever, seem  to  have  been  very  generally  violated. 

2  Lucy   Maynard   Salmon,   Domestic  Service.     Miss   Salmon 
records  (p.  69)  the  landing  in  New  England  of  forty  servants  in 
June,  1622,  and  of  some  three  or  four  hundred  in  1628.    She  also 
notes  (p.  20)  the  purchase  of  "  one  German  Swiss "  and  "  two 
French  Swiss "  from  a  Dutch  ship  in  Philadelphia  as  late  as 
August,  1817.     The  proportion  of  the  indentured  class  in  the 
earlier  batches  cannot,  however,  be  determined. 

47 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

some  particular  form  of  industrial  service.  But 
the  rapid  development  of  American  industry, 
along  with  the  still  more  rapid  appropriation  of 
land,  had  created  a  proletarian  class  in  all  the 
large  cities;  and  the  great  mass  of  the  freed 
servants  went  to  swell  this  body.  The  exist- 
ence of  a  class  of  landless  "  free  "  workers  at 
day  labor  is  revealed  in  pre-Revolutionary 
records.  Following  the  Revolution,  the  de- 
velopment of  capitalism  in  the  North  caused 
both  bound  service  and  slavery  to  disappear, 
and  greatly  augmented  the  numbers  of  these 
"  free  "  workers.  Though  the  outlet  of  unappro- 
priated lands  in  the  West  set  some  limits  to 
the  growth  of  this  class,  it  nevertheless  steadily 
increased.  The  sufferings  of  the  city  poor 
were  often  appalling,  and  the  social  writings  of 
the  first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  show 
that  however  hapless  may  now  be  the  condition 
of  a  great  part  of  the  working  class,  it  was 
worse  then.  Protective  and  sanitary  laws, 
labor  organizations,  and  the  general  influence 
of  manhood  suffrage,  all  of  which  combine  in 
our  day  to  set  some  bar  to  the  otherwise  inescap- 
able robbery  of  "  free  "  workers  under  capitalism, 
were  as  yet  unknown  or  of  but  slight  efficacy. 
Winter  in  the  larger  cities  was  a  season  of 
general  privation.  "  Notwithstanding  the  active 

48 


CLASSES   AND,  THE   CLASS   STRUGGLE 

and  stirring  features  the  city  of  New  York 
exhibits,"  writes  an  author  of  the  third  decade, 
"there  were,  on  the  first  of  January,  1826,  at 
least  one-fourth  of  the  journeymen  in  its  differ- 
ent mechanic  arts  destitute  of  settled  employ- 
ment." 1  Frances  Wright  (Madame  d'Arusmont) 
gives  a  darker  picture  of  the  winter  of  1828-1829; 
while  Horace  Greeley,  writing  of  the  same 
period,  but  particularly  of  the  "  dead "  season 
of  1831-1832,  says:  "Mechanics  and  laborers 
lived  awhile  on  the  scanty  savings  of  the  pre- 
ceding summer  and  autumn ;  then  on  such 
credit  as  they  could  wring  from  grocers  and 
landlords,  till  milder  weather  brought  them 
work  again.  ...  It  was  much  the  same  every 
winter." '  Ten  thousand  persons  were  in  utter 
poverty  in  New  York  City  during  the  winter 
of  1838-1839,  while  in  1843,  according  to 
Parke  Godwin,  forty  thousand  persons,  or  about 

1  L.  Byllesby,  Observations  on  the  Sources  and  Effects  of  Un- 
equal Wealth  (New  York,  1826),  p.   105.     This  rare  book  is, 
with  perhaps  one  exception,  —  An  Address  to  the  Members  of 
Trade  Societies  (Philadelphia,  i826(?)),  —  the  first  distinctively 
Socialist  work  published  in  America.     It  is  largely  built  upon 
Robert  Owen's  theories. 

2  A  great  deal  of  valuable  data  regarding  early  social  and 
industrial  conditions  is  to  be  found  in  the  late  Charles  Sother- 
an's  Horace  Greeley  and  Other  Pioneers  of  American  Socialism. 
See  also  an    article    by    the  present  author,   "The  American 
Workman's  'Golden  Age,1 "  The  Forum,  August,  1901. 

E  49 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

i 

one-ninth  of  the  city's  population,  were  relieved 
at  the  almshouse.  America  may  have  been 
another  name  for  opportunity,  as  Emerson 
said  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  to  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  persons  opportunity  itself  was  but 
a  name.  A  landless,  proletarian  class  had  be- 
come a  fixed  and  enduring  stratum  in  Ameri- 
can life. 

Ill 

The  existence  of  classes  here  in  republican 
America  is  often  indignantly  denied./  But  upon 
what  valid  grounds  the  denial  is  made  would 
be  difficult  to  discover.)  Industrial  evolution 
has  resulted  in  a  vast  differentiation  in  kinds 
of  employment,  and  it  has  amplified  and  ex- 
tended the  fundamental  differences  in  the  rela- 
tions of  men  to  production  itself  and  to  the 
system  of  production.  The  relations  of  the 
toolless  employee  and  of  the  factory-owning 
employer  to  the  product  of  any  particular  shop 
are  widely  distinct ;  and  throughout  all  society 
there  exists  a  gradation  of  groups  of  men  with 
varying  relations  to  one  another,  to  a  particular 
product,  and  to  production  as  a  whole.  Pro- 
fessor Ely,  in  his  most  recent  book,  frankly 
concedes  the  fact  of  classes  in  America,  briefly 
explaining  their  genesis  and  development :  — 

50 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

"If  we  take  any  definition  which  we  will  as  a 
guide,  we  must  acknowledge  that  we  have  classes  in 
the  United  States.  We  have  groups  of  individuals 
who  possess  common  characteristics.  They  have 
their  own  peculiar  habits  of  body  and  of  mind,  and 
their  own  peculiar  needs.  The  farmer  has  his  own 
way  of  looking  at  things,  the  merchant  another  way. 
The  wage-earner,  especially  as  he  develops,  as  he  is 
doing,  class  consciousness,  has  still  other  ways  of 
doing  things  and  viewing  affairs.  The  chief  classifi- 
cation in  our  own  day  is  that  which  is  caused,  on  the 
one  hand,  by  variations  in  wealth,  and  on  the  other, 
by  a  separation  between  the  employed  and  the 
employers."1 

And  again,  in  the  same  work,  dwelling  upon 
the  clearer  delimitation  of  class  lines  under 
modern  social  processes,  he  writes :  — 

"  This  classification  [employers  and  employed]  has 
been  growing  in  importance.  In  Washington's  ad- 
ministration, let  us  say,  it  at  least  would  not  have 
been  unreasonable  for  an  ordinary  laboring  man  to 
expect  to  become  the  manager  of  a  business  of  his 
own.  Nowadays  it  is  absurd  to  hold  out  to  the 
masses  of  men  such  a  prospect.  The  few  may  rise, 
as  the  few  may  draw  prizes  in  a  lottery,  but  it  is  fool- 
ish for  an  ordinary  workman  to  look  forward  to  great 
wealth  or  to  the  ownership  of  an  independent  busi- 
ness. There  are,  for  example,  over  a  million  persons 

1  Richard  T.  Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolution  of  Industrial  Soci- 
ety, pp.  84-85. 

51 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

engaged  in  the  railway  business  in  the  United  States, 
but  less  than  one  per  cent,  of  them  are  officers  of  any 
sort,  let  alone  being  president  of  the  railway."1 

Even  the  most  blissful  of  the  social  Unita- 
rians—  the  deniers  of  class  and  the  asserters 
of  economic  and  social  unity  under  private 
capital  —  will  hardly  allege  that  domestic  ser- 
vants and,  let  us  say,  bankers,  belong  to  the 
same  economic  division.  Their  differences  of 
function,  interest,  and  relationship  to  the  sys- 
tem are  obvious.  Nor  will  any,  except  a  few 
sentimentalists  who  delight  in  reiterating  the 
empty  phrase  that  "  the  interests  of  capital  and 
labor  are  identical,"  maintain  that  the  same  eco- 
nomic group  may  comprise  both  boilermakers 
and  railroad  presidents.  Between  lawyers  and 
farmers,  miners  and  stockbrokers,  lie  equal  dif- 
ferences of  function,  interest,  and  relationship, 
and  no  torturing  of  the  obvious  facts  can  trans- 
mute such  diversities  into  likenesses.  These 
differences  are  the  basis  of  class  groupings. 

That  passage  from  class  to  class  is  possible 
and  does  actually  occur,  is  of  course  true.  Work- 
men sometimes  become  retailers  and  retailers 
often  become  workmen.  It  is  such  facts  which 
serve  for  the  basis  of  the  usual  denial  of  the 

i  Ely,  pp.  79-80. 
52 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

existence  of  classes.  But  one  could,  on  like 
grounds,  deny  the  existence  of  the  German 
nation.  Thousands  of  Germans  yearly  remove 
to  America,  while  hundreds  return  to  their  fa- 
therland. How,  indeed,  can  there  be  such  a 
corporate  entity  when  groups  of  the  atoms  of 
which  it  is  alleged  to  be  composed  are  in  so 
constant  a  movement  of  disintegration  and  rein- 
tegration?  The  frontiers  and  boundaries  of 
class  are  no  less  frontiers  and  boundaries  be- 
cause they  are  traversed  by  individuals.  So 
long  as  one  is  a  unit  of  a  particular  class  his 
function,  interest,  economic  relation,  and,  as  a 
general  thing,  his  social  standing,  are  those  of 
the  mass  of  his  fellows :  and  when  he  ascends 
or  descends  to  another  class,  he  has,  like  Fer- 
dinand's father,  "suffered  a  sea-change,"  and 
has  become,  economically,  another  thing. 

The  asserters  of  present  social  unity  freely 
admit  that  there  are  gradations  of  wealth  and 
diversities  of  function ;  they  admit  generally 
that  these  are  likely  to  continue.  Indeed,  the 
necessary  continuance  of  these  disparities  has 
become  a  fixed  article  of  creed  with  the  defend- 
ers of  the  present  regime.  To  the  theological, 
the  Almighty  willed  it ;  to  the  "  scientific  "  and 
anti-theological,  Nature  willed  it ;  while  to  the 
magnates,  who  may  be  of  either  or  neither  sect, 

53 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

this  continuance  is  equally  a  matter  of  certitude, 
since  they  themselves  have  willed  it.  All  the 
tests  that  are  here  required  for  the  definition  of 
an  economic  class  are  generally  admitted  by  the 
social  Unitarians  to  be  embodied  in  existing  con- 
ditions of  American  life  to-day.  But  for  all  that, 
they  strain  at  the  word  "  class."  It  is  a  dread- 
ful term,  and  must  be  avoided  at  whatever  cost. 
And  so,  for  its  orthodox  definition,  they  demand 
a  status  fixed  and  inescapable,  as  shut-in  and 
permanent  as  that  of  the  Hindu  castes. 

This  absolute  fixity  of  status  cannot,  of  course, 
be  shown.  For  though  increasing  barriers  hem 
in  the  proletarian  class,  displacement  among  the 
upper  orders  is  common.  Throughout  the  na- 
tion, but  particularly  in  the  larger  centres,  the 
number  of  persons  who  are  yearly  pitched  head- 
long from  the  barricades  of  the  earthly  para- 
dise of  the  possessing  classes  into  the  outward 
world  of  the  proletarians  is  enormous.  The 
census  figures  on  occupations  tell,  in  a  crude 
way,  something  of  the  story.  In  agriculture, 
the  number  of  tenants  increased  in  the  twenty 
years,  1880-1900,  by  97.7  per  cent.,  while  the 
number  of  owners,  part  owners,  "  owners  and 
tenants  "  (working  in  common),  and  managers 
increased  by  but  24.4  per  cent.  During  the 
last  decade  the  number  of  employing  farmers 

54 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

(both  owners  and  tenants)  increased  by  but  7 
per  cent,  while  the  farm  laborers  increased  by 
47  per  cent.  In  trade  and  transportation  a  like 
movement  is  discernible.  Retail  merchants  in- 
creased during  the  last  decade  by  19.5  per 
cent.,  while  draymen,  hackmen,  and  teamsters 
increased  by  49  per  cent,  packers,  shippers, 
porters,  and  helpers,  130  per  cent,  and  sales- 
men and  saleswomen,  131  per  cent.  Much  the 
same  story  is  revealed  in  the  figures  for  the 
other  branches  of  commerce  and  industry.  In 
one  branch  of  manufacturing,  that  of  agricul- 
tural implements,  the  decrease  in  the  number 
of  establishments  during  the  last  decade  has 
been  21.4  per  cent,  while  the  number  of  wage- 
earners  has  increased  by  20  per  cent  For  the 
fifty-year  period,  1850-1900,  the  number  of  es- 
tablishments of  this  sort  declined  about  one- 
half,  while  the  number  of  wage-earners  increased 
nearly  600  per  cent  When  the  rate  of  in- 
crease in  any  of  the  subdivisions  of  the  "middle 
class  "  is  less  than  that  of  the  increase  of  popu- 
lation, it  means,  in  all  likelihood,  a  certain  de- 
gree of  displacement;  but  when,  further,  this 
increase  is  small  compared  with  the  increase  of 
commercial  transactions  and  of  the  numbers  of 
the  proletarian  class,  it  can  mean  only  wholesale 
ejection  of  middlemen  into  the  ranks  below. 

55 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

Nevertheless,  though  individuals  still  traverse 
the  boundaries  of  class,  it  is  ^indubitable  that 
these  dividing  lines  become  stronger  with  the 
constant  hardening  and  settling  of  industrial 
processes.  The  economic  elasticity  of  fifty 
years  ago  has  disappeared.  In  the  earlier  days 
of  the  Republic  it  was  common  for  an  individ- 
ual to  be  connected  with  several  economic 
classes.  He  would  often  be  farmer,  capitalist, 
and  trader.  As  a  member  of  the  now  disap- 
pearing class  of  handicraftsmen  he  would  be  both 
workman  and  trader.  The  village  blacksmith  or 
shoemaker  often  tilled  a  moderate  tract  of  ground, 
while  the  tradesmen  and  manufacturers  of  the 
cities  as  well  as  the  towns  not  infrequently  lived 
on  large  farms,  which  were  thoroughly  cultivated. 

The  change  in  conditions  is  obvious.  There 
is  an  increasing  specialization  of  employments 
which  devotes  the  overwhelming  mass,  for  the 
term  of  their  lives,  to  the  special  kinds  of  labor 
in  which  they  engage  in  youth.  Though  con- 
centration in  industry  yearly  forces  thousands 
from  one  class  to  another,  the  transfer  is  gen- 
erally on  a  descending  scale,  and  the  unde- 
luded  among  those  who  have  been  displaced, 
recognize  that  henceforth  and  to  the  end  their 
status  is  fixed  and  unchangeable.  Along  with 
these  objective  changes,  there  are  everywhere 

56 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

observed  increasing  manifestations  of  class 
instinct,  ripening  here  and  there  into  class 
consciousness;  while  class  antagonisms  be- 
come more  constant  and  more  determined,  and 
the  class  struggle  which,  under  varying  forms 
and  with  varying  degrees  of  consciousness  on 
the  part  of  the  participants,  has  been  intermit- 
tently carried  oh  for  ages,  becomes  again  more 
acute. 

•jr 

.s  Out  of  class  interest  and  function  develops 
class  instinct.1  It  manifests  itself  in  like  feel- 
ings and  actions  under  like  conditions  of  em- 
ployment. However  isolated  from  his  class 
fellows  the  individual  may  be,  he  sees,  thinks, 
and  feels  regarding  his  more  immediate  con- 
cerns as  his  class  interest  and  function  deter- 
mine ;  and  the  color  and  direction  given  by 
his  primary  interests  tinge  and  direct  his 
beliefs  and  influence  his  actions  in  most  other 

*  matters.  Professor  Commons  has  distinguished 
self-interest  from  class  interest,  and  each  of 
these  from  national  interest  or  patriotism.2 

1  The  word  "  instinct "  is  here  and  elsewhere  employed  in  a 
popular  rather  than  a  scientific  sense.    "  Habit-reflexes  "  would 
perhaps  be  a  more  exact  term  for  what  is  described. 

2  John  R.  Commons,  "  Discussion  of  the  President's  Address," 
Proceedings  of  the   Twelfth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American 
Economic  Association,  pp.  63-64. 

57 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

The  first  two,  however,  though  apparently  dis- 
tinct, are  readily  resolvable  into  an  obverse 
and  reverse  of  the  same  thing.  Class  interest 
is  but  another  aspect  of  self-interest,  having 
its  base  in  the  same  desires  and  needs.  Pri- 
marily, the  human  struggle  is  one  for  individ- 
ual advantage.  But  since  there  are  obvious 
limitations  to  the  extent  to  which  the  individ- 
ual can  assert  himself,  he  instinctively  develops 
the  practice  of  acting  in  unison  with  certain 
of  his  fellows  of  like  conditions  and  having 
like  needs.  And  as  industry  becomes  differ- 
entiated, and  particular  groups  develop  more 
specialized  functions,  the  sense  of  similar  inter- 
ests and  the  practice  of  like  functions  create 
a  more  specialized  set  of  feelings  and  beliefs, 
in  which  all  share. 

In  times  of  slavery,  the  general  mass  of 
masters  hold  one  set  of  ideas  of  what  is  right, 
and  what  they  propose  to  enforce,  while  the  gen- 
eral mass  of  slaves  have  another  set  of  stand- 
ards and  purposes.  Under  feudalism,  the 
upper  classes  view  matters  in  one  way,  while 
the  villeins  view  matters  in  quite  another. 
Under  the  present  capitalist  system,  employers 
of  necessity  agree  with  one  another  in  certain 
standards  of  action  and  a  certain  common  will, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  employees  as  inevi- 

58 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

tably  rally  around  a  quite  different  set  of  feel- 
ings and  convictions. 

These  feelings  and  convictions  are  not  tem- 
peramental; they  are  not  even  necessarily 
reasoned.  They  are  the  mental  reflexes  pro- 
duced by  functions  and  interests.  They  are 
not  fixed  in  the  mental  fibre  of  the  individual, 
for  the  individual  shifts  his  beliefs  when  he 
passes  from  one  class  to  another.  As  a  me- 
chanic, he  views  industrial  problems  in  one 
light :  good  wages,  short  hours,  and,  if  a  union 
man,  the  mutual  regulation  of  the  smallest  and 
pettiest  details  of  shop  work,  are  to  him  almost 
the  elemental  principles  of  a  religion.  But 
when  he  becomes  an  employer,  that  which  had 
before  seemed  to  him  just,  comes  often  to  be 
regarded  as  unjust  and  even  grotesque.  He 
has  suffered  no  change  in  moral  integrity,  no 
impairment  of  judgment;  yet  suddenly  he  has 
found  hollow  and  meaningless  that  which 
before  was  almost  axiomatic.  It  is  his  new 
interests  which  dominate  him  —  new  interests 
arising  out  of  new  methods  of  making  a  living ; 
and  it  is  almost  inevitable  that  such  interests, 
based  on  such  profound  needs  as  the  mainte- 
nance of  life,  should  endow  him  with  new  beliefs 
and  standards  of  conduct.  These  interests  are 
the  basis  of  his  class  feeling  and  his  class  attitude. 

59 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

It  must  not  be  thought,  however,  that  be- 
cause men  develop  class  instinct  and  class 
feeling  they  necessarily  develop  class  con- 
sciousness. The  consciousness  of  class  fol- 
lows haltingly  and  tardily  the  instinct  of  class 
interests.  A  non-union  workman,  for  instance, 
looks  at  questions  of  wages  and  hours  from  the 
standpoint  of  a  workman ;  he  wants  high  wages 
if  he  can  get  them ;  short  hours,  healthful  con- 
ditions ;  and  whatever  ethical  standards  he  de- 
velops arise  out  of  his  status  as  a  worker.  But 
he  is  almost  wholly  devoid  of  class  conscious- 
ness. Possibly  he  considers  himself  a  worker 
for  the  time  only,  and  expects  by  some  wondrous 
transformation  to  become  an  employer ;  or  pos- 
sibly his  understanding  is  too  narrow  to  enter- 
tain any  conception  of  classes.  At  any  rate, 
he  cannot  see,  or  refuses  to  see,  that  his  inter- 
ests are  bound  up  in  those  of  his  fellows.  He 
fails  utterly  to  comprehend  that  what  is  one 
wage-earner's  gain  or  loss,  as  a  wage-earner,  is 
potentially,  and  in  the  long  run,  the  gain  or 
loss  of  all  other  men  in  that  class. 

It  is  this  fact  of  the  slow  growth  of  class 
consciousness  among  the  producers  that  has 
made  them  so  long  the  prey  of  the  exploiting 
classes.  The  union  workman  and  the  Social- 
istic union  workman  —  the  former  imperfectly, 

60 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

the  latter  fully — have  developed  this  conscious- 
ness of  class,  and  in  turn  strive  to  awaken  it 
in  their  more  dormant  brothers.  The  rapidity 
of  its  growth  depends  largely  on  the  nearness 
of  the  benefits  to  be  gained  by  its  assertion. 
Thus  the  union  workman  reaches  his  partial 
class  consciousness  by  a  sense  of  the  imme- 
diate benefit  in  wages  and  conditions  to  be 
gained  by  collective  bargaining.  The  fuller 
class  consciousness  involved  in  the  concept  of 
collective  action  by  the  whole  class  of  pro- 
ducers for  the  gaining  of  approximately  the 
entire  product  of  their  labor,  is  more  tardily 
attained,  because  the  benefits  promised  seem 
less  tangible  and  more  remote.  But  with  the 
increasing  stress  of  the  class  struggle,  the  con- 
sciousness of  class  gradually  awakens  in  the 
minds  of  an  increasing  number  of  the  partici- 
pants, and  manifests  itself  in  a  more  united 
and  determined  assertion  of  their  varying 
claims. 

V 

The  struggle  of  the  non-possessing  against 
the  possessing  classes  goes  on  in  all  historic 
times ;  and  the  various  intermediate  classes  are 
forced  by  the  current  of  circumstances  now 
to  this  and  now  to  that  alignment,  as  their 

61 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

material  interests  dictate.  But  in  all  times  it  is 
the  nature  of  the  antagonism  between  the  two 
extreme  classes,  based  on  the  economic  condi- 
tions separating  them,  which  determines  the 
form  of  the  struggle,  the  intermediaries  acting 
the  part  only  of  transient  auxiliaries.  In  this 
struggle  the  non-possessing  are  at  one  time 
more  or  less  conscious  and  determined,  as  the 
followers  of  Spartacus,  the  German  peasants 
of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  the  followers  of 
Wat  Tyler;  and  at  another  time  unconscious 
of  their  mission  and  their  work,  and  but  blindly 
and  instinctively  battling  against  seemingly 
inexorable  powers,  as  the  lower  animals  strive 
against  Nature  for  the  means  of  existence. 

But  in  our  day  the  increasing  signs  of  an 
awakening  class  consciousness  follow  closely 
the  increasing  signs  of  an  intensifying  class 
struggle.1  Though  large  sections  of  the  gen- 
eral mass  may  be  for  the  time  quiescent,  lulled 
by  the  illusion  of  social  peace  under  private 
capital,  and  ignorant  of  the  part  their  daily 
strivings  in  the  workaday  world  bear  in  the 
great  issue,  yet  the  conflict  becomes  more 
acute  in  their  despite.  It  has  not  infrequently 

1  For  a  striking  summary  of  the  present  phases  of  this  con- 
flict see  Jack  London,  « The  Class  Struggle,"  The  Independent, 
November  5,  1903.  , 

62 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

happened,  during  the  various  historic  periods 
working  toward  a  revolutionary  change,  that 
a  temporary  quiescence  of  the  majority  has 
coincided  with  an  increased  aggressiveness  of 
the  minority.  Such  a  phenomenon  is  observ- 
able now.  Though  the  multitude  slumbers  in 
fancied  security,  looking  upon  its  economic 
strivings  and  disputes  as  mere  unrelated  inci- 
dents of  chance,  the  advance  guard  of  each  of 
the  two  extreme  classes  has  reached  a  full  con- 
sciousness of  its  interests,  of  the  part  it  bears 
in  the  struggle,  and  a  determination  to  yield 
no  point  to  its  opponent.  Organization  of 
classes  and  sub-classes,  under  these  awakened 
leaders,  steadily  proceeds,  until  throughout  the 
nation  is  observed  the  phenomenon  of  militant 
forces  lined  up  for  action.  Few  legislative  meas- 
ures of  any  economic  consequence  are  pro- 
posed that  are  not  approved  and  supported  by 
representatives  of  one  class,  and  denounced  and 
opposed  by  representatives  of  another.  The 
blacklist  opposes  the  boycott,  the  lockout  op- 
poses the  strike,  martial  law  and  the  injunc- 
tion, in  the  hands  of  one  class,  are  employed 
as  weapons  against  an  antagonistic  class. 
Though  arbitration  and  conciliation  have  made 
headway  in  preventing  or  postponing  labor 
troubles,  an  increasing  bitterness  characterizes 

63 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

all  the  open  conflicts.  The  ruling  class  —  or 
rather,  a  part  of  the  citizenship,  acting  under 
the  direct  incitement  and  control  of  the  ruling 
class  —  in  the  recent  Colorado  troubles  have 
displayed  a  brutality  and  a  lawlessness  in  their 
treatment  of  innocent  and  unresisting  men, 
and  even  women  and  children,  never  before 
shown  on  a  like  scale  in  the  United  States. 
Powerful  organizations,  such  as  the  Citizens' 
Industrial  Association  of  America  and  the  Na- 
tional Association  of  Manufacturers,  with  other 
less  powerful  but  quite  as  militant  bodies, 
formed  on  purely  class  lines,  array  themselves 
against  bodies  of  organized  workmen,  while  the 
latter  devote  themselves  to  the  task  of  strength- 
ening their  unions  to  the  utmost  and  preparing 
for  the  coming  crisis/l^Professional  retainers, 
from  their  chairs  and  their  pulpits,  ally  them- 
selves with  the  dominant  class,  interpreting  its 
special  claims  as  the  substance  of  an  ethical 
code  obligatory  upon  all  mankind,  and  echoing 
its  demands  for  "free  labor"  and  the  "open 
shop";  while  the  social  "dough-faces,"  of  all 
classes  and  of  no  class,  add  their  voices  to  the 
chorus  of  conflicting  noises  with  the  cry  of 
G  Peace  !  Peace !  "'when  there  is  no  peace. 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

VI 

Congenital  optimists,  as  well  as  other  con- 
servatives of  various  kinds,  are  very  fond  of 
charging  social  agitators  with  attempting  to 
develop  classes  by  appealing  to  class  hatred. 
But  it  is  overlooked  that  this  allegation  is  in 
itself  an  acknowledgment  of  the  existence  of 
classes.  Without  classes  there  can  obviously 
be  no  such  thing  as  class  hatred.  Obviously, 
moreover,  this  allegation  refers  to  the  fostering 
of  hatred  among  workmen  for  their  capitalist 
masters.  By  what  means  has  been  developed 
the  responsive  hatred  by  the  masters  of  the 
men,  of  which  such  striking  examples  have 
recently  been  given  by  the  public  representa- 
tives of  the  militant  employers'  organizations,  is 
not  disclosed.  It  should  be  remembered,  further, 
that  with  the  development  of  industry  in  times 
of  peace,  classes  arise  long  before  there  is  any 
awakening  of  class  hatred ;  and,  finally,  that  an 
inferior  class  may  be  so  benumbed  by  oppression 
or  so  cajoled  or  wheedled  as  to  acquiesce  in  its 
wrongs  and  to  reverence  its  oppressors.  The 
reason  for  class  hatred  among  normal  men  is 
the  sense  of  economic  exploitation,  with  its 
almost  inevitable  resultant  of  a  sense  of  social 
inferiority.  As  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lovejoy  writes: 

65 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"  The  cause  of  class  hatred  lies  in  the  relation  that 
one  class  sustains  to  another.  The  counterpart  of 
hatred  is  contempt,  and  where  there  is  one  class  in 
society  that  looks  down  upon  another  as  its  inferior 
there  will  be  another  class  in  society  which  will  re 
spond  to  that  look  with  hatred.  For  contempt  is  not 
passive ;  it  is  active  and  at  the  heart  of  much  of 
the  injustice  history  has  been  compelled  to  record. 
The  men  who  look  upon  their  fellow-men  as  inferior, 
as  possessing  no  rights  worthy  of  respect,  will  seek 
opportunities  to  infringe  those  rights,  to  take  advan- 
tage of  the  inferior  strength  or  position  of  others, 
and  when  one  class  is  in  a  position  in  which  it  is  able 
to  wrong  another  class,  and  does  wrong  it,  that  other 
class  will  hate  the  first." l 

Doubtless  there  are  social  agitators  who  are 
men  of  bitter  temperaments  and  who  make  their 
appeal  to  hatred.  But  bitter  temperaments  are 
confined  to  no  class.  They  are,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  if  one  may  judge  of  the  character  of  a  class 
by  the  expressions  of  its  most  eminent  repre- 
sentatives, quite  as  frequently  found  in  the 
upper  as  in  the  lower  divisions.  Insistence 
upon  the  fact  of  classes,  and  attempts  to  develop 
the  class  consciousness  of  the  workers,  are  not 
of  themselves  manifestations  of  hatred.  The 
thing  done  is  a  statement  of  fact,  and  the  thing 


1  Owen   R.   Lovejoy,    article    on    "  Socialism    versus  Class 
Hatred,"  in  The  Worker •,  newspaper  (New  York),  May  I,  1903. 

66 


CLASSES  AND  THE  CLASS  STRUGGLE 

sought  is  not  the  perpetuation  of  classes,  but  their 
abolition.  It  is  only  by  making  men  aware  of 
the  unhappy  truth  that  they  can  be  influenced 
to  apply  the  remedy.  As  a  Socialist  writer  says 
in  a  recent  number  of  a  Western  newspaper :  — 

"  The  class  struggle  is  not  an  invention  of  the  So- 
cialists. It  is  a  fact  which  they  discovered  by  a  scien- 
tific analysis  of  human  history.  The  class  struggle 
had  been  raging  in  human  society  thousands  of  years 
before  the  Socialists  discovered  its  historical  function 
and  pointed  it  out.  So  did  the  struggle  for  existence 
between  the  organic  and  inorganic  creation,  and  be- 
tween the  various  divisions  of  the  organic  creation, 
rage  for  uncounted  ages  before  Darwin  formulated 
his  definition  of  it.  But  the  first  enunciation  of  the 
class  struggle  in  human  language  was  no  more  a 
gospel  of  hatred  than  was  the  assertion  of  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  by  Darwin.  It  was  simply  the 
statement  of  a  scientific  fact  in  plain  scientific  terms. 
The  first  Socialists  who  pointed  out  the  existence  of 
class  struggles  did  so  only  to  show  their  historical 
function  in  the  development  of  society,  and  to  declare 
that  their  aim  was  the  abolition  of  all  classes  and  of 
all  class  struggles.  This  alone  should  be  sufficient 
proof  to  the  unbiassed  mind  that  the  Socialist  philos- 
ophy is  the  scientific  foundation  for  a  new  ethics,  not 
a  philosophy  of  hatred." l 

1  Ernest  Untermann,  article  on  "  The  Materialist  Conception 
of  History,"  in  the  Appeal  to  Reason,  newspaper  (Girard,  Kan.), 
September  19,  1903. 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

The  essential  first  step  toward  future  harmony 
is  to  understand  the  causes  of  the  present  dis- 
cord. Only  by  a  thorough  recognition  of  the 
character  and  causes  of  class  divisions  can  the 
material  factors  compelling  those  divisions  be 
abolished,  and  the  ground  be  prepared  for  a 
complete  and  abiding  social  unity.  To  blame 
those  who  point  out  the  fact  of  classes  and  the 
class^struggle  is  futile,  and  the  passion  that 
prompts  such  blame  is  as  senseless  and  barbaric 
as  was  that  of  the  Oriental  kings  of  old  who 
slew  the  messengers  of  ill  tidings. 


68 


CHAPTER    III 

CLASSES  AND  CLASS  FUNCTIONS 
I 

No  analysis  of  class  divisions,  it  may  be 
admitted,  can  be  entirely  satisfactory.  For  it 
is  evident  that  hard  and  fast  lines  cannot  be  set 
for  all  the  various  groups  in  the  great  body  of 
workers  in  gainful  occupations.  Whatever  the 
test  applied,  it  will  be  found  that  there  are 
many  and  important  exceptions.  Social  defini- 
tions must,  in  the  main,  deal  with  centres  rather 
than  circumferences.  The  older  zoology  em- 
bodied the  fault  of  setting  rigorous  bounds  to 
species,  while  the  newer  zoology  has  come  to 
consider  a  species  in  the  light  of  an  average  of 
characters,  with  wide  variations  extending  in 
many  directions  from  a  common  centre.  Social 
science  deals  with  far  more  complicated  factors 
than  does  physical  science ;  and  the  lesson 
drawn  from  the  latter  must  be  kept  in  mind  at 
every  step  of  our  survey. 

When  viewed  in  the  mass,  with  regard  for 
69 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

what  is  characteristic  or  typical,  the  distinctions 
are  clear  as  between  the  two  extreme  classes  of 
wage-earning  producers  and  of  capitalist  em- 
ployers. Function,  interest,  and  relationship  to 
the  regime  are  set  off  in  sharp  contrast  between 
the  one  class  and  the  other,  while  divergences 
of  belief  and  conduct,  built  up  from  this  mate- 
rialist basis,  are  quite  as  marked.  But  individ- 
uals have  often  a  complexity  of  function  and 
interest  which  compels  in  them  a  divided 
allegiance  to  several  classes.  The  economic 
forces  exerted  upon  the  members  of  the  inter- 
mediary classes  are  many  and  various,  and  even 
upon  the  members  of  the  extreme  classes  are 
often  diverse.  The  professional  man  who  has 
invested  money  in  trade,  the  wage-earner  who 
has  bought  a  few  shares  in  Steel  or  Shipbuild- 
ing, are  cases  in  point.  As  the  earth  has  a  pri- 
mary motion  of  keeping  to  the  track  of  its 
orbit,  so  has  the  individualist  primary  relation 
to  the  class  wherein  lies  his  dominant  economic 
interest.  But  the  earth  has  also  other  distinct 
motions  in  space,  due  to  planetary  and  other 
attractions,  and  so,  too,  the  individual  is  vari- 
ously acted  upon  by  extra-class  influences. 

The  individual  may  be  a  wage-earning  pro- 
ducer, and  yet  the  peculiar  nature  of  his  task 
may  be  such  as  to  alienate  him  from  the  com- 

70 


fc/vC**-' 

^AT—    V,..^>  tr^-AW  4^U^ 
'CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

mon  body  of  instincts  and  beliefs  of  other  wage- 
earning  producers.  Many  employees,  such,  for 
instance,  as  clerks,  though  in  reality  proleta- 
rians, with  functions  somewhat  similar,  and 
interests  relatively  common,  to  the  entire  body 
of  wage-earning  producers,  bear  an  attitude  ot 
almost  complete  acquiescence  in  the  thoughts 
and  beliefs  of  the  class  that  employs  them  —  a 
class  most  of  whose  interests  are  directly  antag- 
onistic to  their  own.  The  individual  may  be 
an  educator  or  a  minister,  whose  right  function 
is  social  service ;  and  yet  the  exceptional  nature 
of  his  relation  to  the  dominant  class,  joined  with 
a  certain  bent  of  mind,  may  be  such  as  to  prompt 
in  him  a  grovelling  conformity  to  its  particular 
code.  It  may  even  prompt  in  him  an  anticipa- 
tory service,  like  that  which  a  squaw  renders 
to  her  savage  lord,  or  an  Oriental  body-slave  to 
his  master.  £Thus  throughout  the  industrial 
army  may  be  found  individuals  and  sometimes 
even  groups,  who  may  be  considered  to  be  eco- 
nomically of  a  certain  class,  but  psychologically 
and  socially  are  the  dupes  and  creatures  of  a 
more  powerful  class. ) 

II 

Though  the  fact  of  economic  classes  becomes 
increasingly   apparent,   no  adequate  survey  of  i 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

the  subject  has  thus  far  been  offered.  Such 
attempts  at  the  analysis  of  classes  as  have  been 
made  by  non-Socialist  writers  have  generally 
resulted  in  vague  definitions  and  fallacious  dis- 
tinctions. Even  the  Socialist  writers,  with  their 
clearer  conceptions  of  the  question,  have 
neglected  to  describe  and  chart  this  most  inter- 
esting field.  What,  for  instance,  is  meant  by 
the  common  expression,  "the  middle  class"? 
Both  Socialist  and  semi-Socialist  writers  disap- 
point us  with  their  indefiniteness  on  this  mat- 
ter: Marx,  Engels,  and  Kautsky  on  the  one 
hand,  and  ScharHe  and  A.  Menger  on  the  other, 
do  not  give  us  what  we  want.  Kirkup,  in  his 
scholarly  History  of  Socialism,  is  likewise 
disappointing.  The  popular  writer,  Robert 
Blatchford,  in  his  Merrie  England,  talks  of 
"  middlemen,"  but  not  of  a  middle  class.  Tract 
No.  5  of  the  Fabian  Society,  wherein,  if  any- 
where, one  would  expect  to  find  this  class 
distinctly  delimited,  is  unsatisfactory.  There 
is  given,  it  is  true,  a  class  of  "comparative 
rich,"  with  an  annual  share  of  the  national 
income  of  $1482  per  adult  male,  but  it  is 
too  imperfectly  described  to  be  of  any  service 
to  us. 

The  conservatives,  such  as  Professors  Giffen 
and  Levi  and  Mr.  Mulhall,  are  quite  as  unsatis- 

72 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

factory.  Mr.  Mallock  talks  learnedly  and  posi- 
tively of  three  classes,  "  the  working  classes," 
"  the  middle  classes,"  and  "  the  rich."  In  the 
first  are  included  persons  whose  yearly  income 
per  family  is  less  than  $729;  in  the  second, 
between  $729  and  $4860;  and  in  the  third, 
more  than  $486o.1  Professor  Ely  recognizes 
the  fundamental  distinction  due  to  economic 
function  and  interest,  but  ventures  upon  no 
comprehensive  classification.2  Professor  Sea- 
ger  likewise  points  out  differences' of  economic 
function,  and  the  mental  and  moral  reactions 
which  inevitably  follow,3  but  when  he  comes  to 
his  classification,  falls  back  upon  the  test  of 
relative  income.  He  divides  "the  working 
population  "  —  evidently  the  whole  body  of  per- 
sons engaged  in  gainful  occupations  —  into  five 
classes.  In  the  first  class  are  placed  those  whose 
incomes  "from  property  or  from  professional 
or  business  activity  "  exceed  #3000  a  year  for 
each  family.  The  second  is  the  "  middle  class," 
with  incomes  ranging  from  $1500  to  $3000; 
the  third,  the  "skilled  workers,"  $600  to  $1500; 
the  fourth,  "unskilled  workmen,"  $i  to  $2  a 

1  W.  H.  Mallock,  Classes  and  Masses,  pp.  8-9. 

2  Richard  T.   Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolution  of  Industrial 
Society^  pp.  74-86. 

8  Henry  Rogers  Seager,  Introduction  to  Economics,  p.  48. 

73 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

day,  and  fifth,  the  "  submerged  tenth,"  less  than 
$i  a  day.1  Other  tentative  classifications  have 
from  time  to  time  been  made,  the  test  of  rela- 
tive income  being  invariably  employed  by  con- 
servative or  non-Socialist  writers.  Only  the 
Socialists  have  insisted  upon  the  fundamental 
distinctions  due  to  economic  function  and  in- 
terest, with  their  natural  sequence  of  distinctive 
beliefs,  attitudes,  and  conduct. 


Ill 

The  test  of  relative  income  fails  utterly  to  fur- 
nish a  standard  for  distinguishing  classes.  No 
common  characteristics,  no  common  body  of 
instincts  and  beliefs,  are  developed  among  men 
by  parity  of  income  alone.  It  is  the  difference 
in  methods  of  making  a  living  that  divides 
the  mass  into  economic  sections,  those  individ- 
uals of  like  tasks  and  interests  developing 
common  characteristics  and  reacting,  as  the 
psychologists  would  say,  in  like  ways  to  the 
same  stimuli. 

There  is,  for  instance,  among  the  whole  body 
of  the  rich,  a  common,  though  not  universal, 
attitude  favoring  the  repression  of  organized 

1  Seager,  pp.  234-243. 
74 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS  FTOtTIONS 


labor,  the  defiance  of  laws  safeguarding  pub- 
lic interests  that  conflict  with  their  own,  the 
bribery  of  legislators  and  administrators,  and 
the  manipulation  of  teaching  in  the  schools 
and  colleges.  This  attitude  is  due,  however, 
not  to  the  fact  that  these  individuals  all  have 
large  incomes,  but  to  the  fact  that  these  incomes 
have  a  like  economic  origin.  The  overwhelm- 
ing mass  of  the  incomes  of  the  rich  comes, 
directly  or  indirectly,  out  of  a  profit  from  the 
toil  and  service  of  other  men;  and  it  is  but 
natural  that  a  common  social  attitude  should  be 
reached  among  them ;  but  it  is  the  character, 
and  not  the  amount,  of  the  income  which  deter- 
mines this  attitude. 

Mere  parity  of  income  will  not  suffice  for  a 
test.  The  skilled  workman  in  the  highly 
organized  trades  is  often  in  receipt  of  an 
income  equal  to  that  of  a  "  successful "  petty 
tradesman.  And  yet  there  can  hardly  be 
found  two  persons  in  the  community  who  are 
farther  apart  in  their  class  attitudes.  The 
physician,  architect,  or  dentist,  if  "successful," 
may  have  an  income  approaching  that  of  a 
lesser  magnate ;  if  unsuccessful,  he  may  barely 
keep  himself  in  a  mean  degree  of  comfort.  But 
whether  prosperous  or  poor,  he  is  economically 
of  the  same  class,  with  an  instinctive  attitude 

75 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

toward  other  individuals  and  toward  society 
as  a  whole,  like  that  of  his  fellows,  and  which 
has  developed  naturally  out  of  his  training  and 
the  exercise  of  his  economic  function. 

IV 

•""  What,  then,  upon  the  basis  here  given,  are 
our  economic  classes  in  America  ?  Obviously, 
we  must  omit  from  consideration  those  persons 
who  bear  but  a  problematic  relation  to  the  eco- 
nomic system.  First  in  this  category  are  non- 
wage-earning  women.  Women  who  bear  and 
rear  children  and  who  make  homes  are  of 
course  a  part  of  the  economic  life  of  a  nation. 
But  they  are  not  a  separable  economic  class. 
In  so  far  as  their  function  is  economic  it  is  but 
subordinate  or  auxiliary  to  that  of  their  hus- 
bands, sons,  fathers,  or  brothers;  while  their 
class  attitude  is,  as  a  rule,  but  a  reflex  of  that 
of  their  male  kindred  with  whom  they  are 
partners  or  sharers  in  the  economic  life,  and 
must  necessarily  remain  so  as  long  as  classes 
endure.  Children  are  also  in  this  category,  and 
so  are  the  old  and  the  disabled,  as  well  as 
tramps  and  criminals.  Still  another  section 
in  this  general  division  are  the  police  and  the 
men  of  the  army  and  navy.  They  are,  of 

76 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

course,  related  to  the  general  economic  life; 
but  the  relation  is  vague  and  indeterminate,  and 
they  are  by  no  test  distinguished  into  economic 
classes. 

Our  inquiry  relates  only  to  those  persons 
who  are  directly  concerned  with  production, 
distribution,  exchange,  and  service.  Among 
these  the  first, -the  most  numerous,  and  the 
most  important  class  is  that  of  the  Prole- 
tarians, or  Wage-earning  Producers.  Pro- 
duction, in  its  broadest  sense,  includes  the 
sum  of  the  processes  employed  in  furnishing 
commodities,  from  the  raising  or  gathering  of 
the  raw  material  to  the  delivery  to  the  con- 
sumer of  the  usable  product.1  It  is  necessary, 
however,  in  dealing  with  the  various  economic 
functions  and  their  resultant  interests,  to  dis- 
tinguish between  those  persons  who  actually 
participate  in  the  physical  processes  of  creative 
and  distributive  work,  and  those,  on  the  other 
hand,  whose  function  is  to  buy  material  and 
labor  and  to  sell  goods.  The  former  are  pro- 
ducers, while  the  latter  are  traders.  The  wage- 
earning  producers  are  the  urban  and  farm 
laborers,  mechanics,  foremen,  and  superintend- 
ents, and  clerks  in  distributive  establishments. 
Their  relations  to  their  employers  are  for  the 

1  Seager,  p.  107. 

77 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

most  part  impersonal,  thus  differentiating  them 
from  certain  other  wage-earners,  such  as  those 
engaged  in  domestic  and  personal  service.  The 
prime  economic  function  of  these  workers  is  pro- 
duction for  wages.  They  do  not  own  the  tools 
with  which  they  work.  These  tools  are  owned 
by  other  men,  are  massed  in  great  factories  or 
workshops,  and  the  wage-earners  must  apply 
for  the  privilege  of  using  them  in  order  to 
live.  The  interest  of  these  workers  begins 
and  ends  with  production  per  se,  and  is  not 
directly  related,  as  is  that  of  the  manufacturer, 
the  merchant,  and  the  petty  handicraftsman,  to 
trade. 

Differing  in  some  respects,  but  yet  auxiliary 
to  this  class,  are  the  inventors  and  the  experts 
in  applied  science.  They  are  true  producers, 
whose  creative  and  utilitive  work  precedes  pro- 
duction and  permeates  all  its  processes.  More- 
over, they  are,  as  a  rule,  earners  of  wages.  The 
expert  is  almost  always  so,  and  the  inventor  gen- 
erally so.  The  independent  inventor  of  former 
years  is  a  disappearing  quantity.  The  inventor 
of  to-day  is  an  employee  who  must  often,  in 
order  to  earn  a  living,  sign  a  contract  —  com- 
placently held  valid  by  our  amiable  judges  — 
giving  over  to  his  employer  all  rights  in  any 
invention  made  by  him  during  his  employ- 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

ment.  Thus  both  his  function  and  interest 
ally  him  with  the  proletarians ;  and  his  class 
attitude,  as  a  rule,  is  the  same  as  theirs. 

Class  II  comprises  the  Self -employing  Pro- 
ducers. These  are,  in  the  main,  land-holding 
farmers  and  handicraftsmen.  The  farmer, 
whether  renter  or  owner,  is  of  course  a  pro- 
ducer, actually  participating  in  the  physical 
processes  of  creation,  and  that  participation  is 
his  main  function.  But  he  differs  from  the 
employed  producer  in  his  possession  of  capital 
(land  and  the  tools  of  production)  and  in  the 
further  fact  that  what  he  produces  in  excess  of 
his  needs  is  sent  to  the  market.  To  the  extent 
that  he  is  an  owner  or  holder  of  land  and  tools 
he  is  a  capitalist,  while  to  the  extent  that  he 
markets  his  products  he  is  specifically  a  trader. 
Hence  the  class  mind  of  the  farmer  differs  from 
that  of  the  proletarian.  It  is,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  a  mind  crowded  with  contradictory  in- 
stincts, prompting  him  to  contradictory  acts, 
e  wage-earners,  out  of  the  direct  pressure  of 
their  necessities,  tend  to  uniform  action  and  the 
aevelopment  of  a  common  will.  But  the  farmers 
still  display  a  wide  diversity  of  economic  ten- 
dency. In  one  place  they  are  found  desperately 
clinging  to  the  trader  mind's  typical  reverence 
for  individualistic,  competitive  action,  and  in 

79 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

another  place  are  found  enthusiastically  engaged 
in  forming  and  maintaining  cooperative  dairy 
associations,  fruit-growers'  combinations,  and 
anti-elevator  societies.  "  Their  environment," 
writes  a  student  of  farm  life  in  a  recent  number 
of  a  Western  newspaper,1  "  produces  in  them  an 
intense  individualism  and  independence  —  and 
suspicion  as  well."  And  though  he  admits  that 
economic  pressure  is  forcing  an  increasing  num- 
ber of  them  to  form  cooperative  societies,  he 
contends  that  these  societies  are  generally  inde- 
pendent of  one  another  and  often  mutually 
antagonistic.  The  representatives  of  the  farmers 
in  the  Omaha  convention  of  1892  unanimously 
resolved  that  "  the  interests  of  rural  and  civic 
labor  are  the  same ;  their  enemies  are  identical." 
But  it  would  be  too  much  to  say  that  their 
political  or  economic  conduct  since  then  has 
indicated  a  general  conviction  of  the  truth  of 
this  declaration.  Class  instinct  among  them 
is  but  slowly  ripening  into  class  consciousness.2 
Of  the  handicraftsmen  there  is  little  to  be 
said.  They  are  a  disappearing  class,  and  the 
full  development  of  the  system  of  capitalist  pro- 
duction must  practically  eliminate  them.  They 

1  Article  on  "  A  Successful   Farmers1  Company,"  Nebraska 
Independent  (Lincoln,  Neb.),  June  23,  1904. 

2  See  A.  M.  Simons,  The  American  Fanner. 

80 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

are  the  self-employing  producers  of  commodities 
furnished  directly  to  the  consumer.  They  were 
once  an  important  class  in  the  nation ;  and  they 
are  still  represented  in  such  branches  of  industry 
as  boot  and  shoe  mending,  tailoring,  carpenter- 
ing, painting,  and  the  like,  proportionately  more 
numerous  in  the  villages  and  smaller  cities  than 
in  the  great  centres.  But  the  intensifying  or- 
ganization of  production  has  in  recent  years 
made  great  inroads  into  their  numbers.  In 
a  community  or  urban  district  where  a  few 
years  ago  there  would  be,  let  us  say,  a  dozen 
scattered  handicraftsmen  doing  odd  jobs  of  a 
particular  kind,  there  is  now  to  be  found  an 
employer  with  a  half-dozen  employees  doing  an 
equal  or  greater  amount  of  work.  The  marked 
decrease  in  the  number  of  workmen  in  several 
industries,  as  recorded  in  the  last  census,  is  due 
largely  to  this  industrial  concentration.  The 
class  mind  of  the  handicraftsman,  it  is  al- 
most needless  to  say,  differs  from  that  of  the 
proletarian.  In  him  the  interest  and  function 
of  the  producer  is  qualified  by  the  interest  and 
function  of  the  trader. 

Class  III  comprises  the  Social  Servants.     In 
this  *•  class   are    included   persons  in  those  oc- 
cupations which,  though  not   usually  directly 
productive,  normally  tend  to  increase  the  pro- 
G  81 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

ductiveness  of  the  workers,  or  to  minister  to  their 
mental,  ethical,  esthetic,  or  more  prosaic  needs, 
and  thereby  to  foster  the  general  welfare.  Such 
persons  are  educators,  clergymen,  physicians, 
artists,  writers,  and  the  employees  of  public 
institutions.  These  persons  are  social  servants 
not  necessarily  through  altruistic  or  social  mo- 
tives—  for  many,  indeed,  are  practically  with- 
out these  —  but  merely  by  virtue  of  the  normal 
function  of  their  occupation.  That  the  normal 
function  of  the  members  of  this  class  is,  in  indi- 
vidual cases,  distorted  or  violated,  is  of  course 
true.  The  economic,  and  consequently  the 
moral,  pressure  exerted  upon  this  class  by  the 
dominant  class  is  constant  and  severe;  and 
the  tendency  of  all  moral  weaklings  within  it 
is  to  conform  to  what  is  expected  from  above. 
With  these  it  is  not  truly  a  social  service,  but  a 
subservient  class  service,  that  is  rendered. 

There  is  thus  a  distinction  to  be  made  be- 
tween the  normal,  or  what  may  be  called  the 
contract,  function  which  is  discharged  by  some 
members  of  this  class,  and  the  perverted  func- 
tion discharged  by  others,  under  the  peculiar 
stress  of  circumstances.  There  are  clergymen, 
for  instance,  who  give  themselves  up  to  the  task 
of  upholding,  by  word  and  action,  the  special 
views  and  standards  of  the  trading  class,  and 

82 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

erecting  those  standards  into  an  ethical  code 
which  they  seek  to  impose  upon  all  society. 
Such  clergymen  are  undoubtedly  retainers. 
But  in  justice  it  should  be  said  that  to  the 
great  majority  of  the  clergy  this  occupation, 
however  necessitated  by  economic  pressure,  is 
probably  not  congenial.  What  is  congenial 
to  them,  what  takes  most  of  their  time  and 
thought,  is  the  exercise  of  their  normal  func- 
tion—  the  encouraging  and  stimulating  of  the 
people  to  be  temperate,  industrious,  honest, 
and  faithful,  to  hold  to  the  virtues  which 
correspond  to  the  real  needs  of  the  people,  and 
the  practice  of  which  conduces  to  economic 
efficiency.  Those  clergymen  who  stimulate 
such  virtues  are  indisputably  social  servants. 
Of  two  other  divisions  of  this  class  qualification 
must  also  be  made.  The  educators  and  writers 
have  a  normal  function  of  social  service.  Many 
of  these,  however,  are  retainers  of  a  degraded 
type,  whose  greatest  activity  lies  in  serving  as 
reflexes  of  trading-class  sentiment  and  dissemi- 
nators of  trading-class  views  of  life. 

Class  IV  comprises  the  Traders,  in  two 
sub-classes:  a,  manufacturers  and  dealers  in 
commodities ;  b,  financiers.  .  The  "  captain  of 
industry  "  is  fundamentally  a  trader.  In  some 
cases  he  exercises  the  function  of  actual  guide 

83 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

and  director  in  production,  though  usually  his 
share  is  little  more  than  that  of  determining  in 
a  general  way  what  shall  be  produced  and  of 
selecting  and  recompensing  the  salaried  per- 
sons who  act  as  the  real  guides  and  directors. 
However  that  might  be,  and  to  whatever  ex- 
tent he  may  serve  as  the  actual  determiner  of 
productive  processes,  he  finds  his  larger  eco- 
nomic interest  in  trade.  Primarily  he  is  a 
dealer  —  one  who  buys  his  material  and  labor 
as  cheaply  as  he  can  and  who  sells  his  product 
as  dear  as  he  can.  His  interest  in  production 
is  incidental  to  his  interest  as  a  trader.  The 
trader  part  of  his  occupation  is  more  strenuous 
and  absorbing  than  the  productive  part;  it  is 
the  man's  "  business,"  and  he  cannot  so  easily 
delegate  it  as  he  can  the  direction  of  processes. 
It  therefore  determines  his  economic  conduct 
and  the  set  of  his  feeling  and  thought.  Of 
wholesale  and  retail  merchants  it  is  needless  in 
this  place  to  speak,  for  their  position  is  obvious. 
The  active  financiers  are  also  plainly  a  com- 
ponent group  of  the  trading  class. 

Class  V  comprises  the  Idle  Capitalists. 
They  toil  not,  nor  spin,  but  they  have  pos- 
sessed themselves  of  a  universal  agent  which 
reaps  rewards  for  them  with  the  passing  of 
every  moment  of  time.  Idle  as  they  are,  they 

84 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

yet  exercise  a  selective  economic  function. 
For  in  choosing  an  investment  they  answer 
"  yes  "  or  "  no  "  to  the  desire  of  some  industrial 
captain  to  enlarge  the  field  of  his  operation. 
Their  general  interests  are  akin  to  those  of  the 
traders.  But  in  the  rent  they  demand  for  the 
use  of  their  capital  they  have  specific  interests 
which  are  directly  antagonistic  to  the  interests 
of  the  users  of  capital. 

Class  VI  comprises  the  Retainers  —  those 
various  sorts  of  persons  who  are  directly  re- 
sponsible to  the  traders  and  capitalists,  and 
whose  occupations  consist  in  contributing  to 
their  comfort  or  interests.  Among  these  are 
lawyers^clerks  in  financial  establishments,  em- 
ployees  in  domestic  and  personal  service,  and 
politicians.  There  is,  of  course,  a  considerable 
horde  of  persons  in  other  classes  whose  bent 
of  mind,  along  with  an  individual  incidence  of 
the  economic  stress,  makes  them  retainers; 
but  we  are  dealing  here  only  with  those 
whose  occupations  necessarily  devote  them  to 
economic  and  moral  dependency. 

The   group  of  judicial,  executive,  and  law-i 
making  public   officials  presents  some  of   the 
difficulties  which  were  outlined  at   the  begin 
ning  of    this    chapter.      In  form  these   office- 
holders are  chosen,  directly  or   indirectly,  by     \ 

8s 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

the  entire  people,  and  nominally  their  duties 
are  to  society  as  a  whole.  They  should,  appar- 
ently, be  unhesitatingly  classed  with  the  social 
servants.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  reality 
does  not  correspond  to  the  form.  The  working 
of  our  political  mechanism  is  such  that  office- 
holders are  in  effect  chosen  by  the  trading 
class,  and  of  course  for  services,  past  or  pro- 
spective. As  a  general  thing  they  fulfil  what 
is  expected  of  them,  and  to  the  extent  that  they 
do  this  they  are  retainers. 

But  when  we  analyze  their  activity  into  its 
various  phases,  we  find  that  some  of  the  func- 
tions they  perform  are  distinctly  and  greatly 
helpful  to  the  people  as  a  whole.  Among 
these  are  the  restraining  of  violence,  the  en- 
forcing of  contracts  for  the  payment  of  wages, 
the  fostering  of  public  education,  and  the  estab- 
lishing and  maintaining  of  public  conveniences 
and  comforts,  such  as  sidewalks,  lights,  and 
parks,  which  are  used  by  all  without  charge. 
Some  charitably  disposed  persons  might  even 
include  in  this  list  the  occasional  enactment  of 
legislation  for  the  "  protection  of  labor."  Such 
enactments,  however,  are  rightly  to  be  regarded 
as  abnormal,  for  they  are  usually  wrung  from 
the  lawmakers  by  momentary  political  terror, 
and  are  generally  so  constructed  as  to  be  inef- 

86 


CLASSES   AND   CLASS   FUNCTIONS 

fective ;  or  when  they  happen  to  be  clearly  ex- 
pressed, they  are  not  infrequently  overturned  by 
the  judges  or  overlooked  by  the  administrators. 
It  is  enough  to  say  that  though  the  greater  part 
of  the  activity  of  public  officials  is  a  class  func- 
tion in  the  interests  of  the  trading  class,  yet  a 
part  of  it,  and  an  important  part,  is  directly 
useful  to  society  -as  a  whole,  and  that  in  the  per- 
formance of  the  latter  sort  of  service  these  offi- 
cials are  veritable  social  servants. 

These  are  the  six  distinctive  economic  classes 
in  America  to-day.  To  one  or  another  of  them 
practically  every  individual  that  takes  part  in 
the  struggle  for  a  livelihood  is  attached  by  a 
dominant  relationship.  Whatever  the  degree 
of  his  kinship  to  the  other  classes,  there  is  gen- 
erally^one  to  which  his  larger  interest  is  joined, 
and  by  whose  necessary  code,  qualified  only  in 
certain  respects  by  the  code  imposed  by  the  rul- 
ing class,  he  governs  his  economic  life.  Even 
the  charitable  and  the  philanthropic,  who  serve 
the  public  out  of  their  overplus  of  wealth  — 
even  those  who  are  generous  out  of  meagre 
incomes  —  retain,  in  their  relations  to  a  par- 
ticular means  of  getting  a  living,  the  class 
standpoint  and  the  class  code.  None  renounces 
his  economic  advantage ;  none  by  any  act  de- 

87 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

liberately  jeopards  his  main  economic  interest. 
Rich  or  poor  —  the  giver  of  goods  or  the  giver 
of  service  —  the  individual  bears  in  mind  a 
standard  of  living  to  which  he  would  conform. 
In  attaining  that  standard,  and,  in  the  over- 
whelming number  of  cases,  in  securing  the 
overplus  that  is  afterward  given  away,  he  ex- 
emplifies the  impulse  of  the  economic  motive, 
the  determining  control  of  the  prevailing  mode 
of  production,  and  finally  the  peculiar  direction 
given  to  his  mental  and  bodily  activities  by  the 
special  interests  of  his  class. 


88 


CHAPTER   IV 

CLASS  ETHICS 

THE  moral  sense  would  seem  to  have  had  its 
origin  in  the  instinct  of  group  safety.  The 
actions  of  the  earliest  men  were  probably 
almost  wholly  instinctive,  like  those  of  the 
lower  animals.  Concepts  of  right  and  wrong 
were  as  yet  unborn.  The  primal  instincts  of 
self-gratification  and  self-preservation  governed 
nearly  all  actions,  the  instinct  of  group  preser- 
vation manifesting  itself  only  in  times  of  stress. 
The  lowest  tribes  of  which  we  have  any  knowl- 
edge, such  as  the  Negritos  of  the  Philippines 
and  the  Bushmen  of  South  Africa,  pursue  an 
individual  search  for  the  smaller  and  more 
easily  gathered  kinds  of  food,  and  associate 
only  in  securing  and  sharing  the  larger  kinds, 
and  in  attack  and  defence.  "  Among  the  lower 
races,"  writes  Bucher,  "  the  mere  care  for  one's 
own  existence  outweighs  all  other  mental 
emotions,  in  fact  .  .  .  beside  it  nothing  else  is 
of  the  least  importance."  There  is  observable 

89 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

among  them  a  selfishness  and  hardness  of 
heart  which  "  enables  husbands  to  refuse  food 
to  their  wives,  and  fathers  to  deny  it  to  their 
hungering  children,  when  they  themselves  would 
but  feast  upon  it."1  The  primitive  savage  is 
concerned  only  with  himself  and  with  the 
present. 

"  When,  therefore,  many  observers  reproach  him 
with  a  boundless  egoism,  hardness  of  heart  toward 
his  fellows,  greed,  thievishness,  inertness,  careless- 
ness with  regard  to  the  future,  and  forgetfulness,  it 
means  that  sympathy,  memory,  and  reasoning  power 
are  still  entirely  undeveloped."  2 

With  the  growth  of  the  brain  came  a  slowly 
and  gradually  unfolding  sense  of  causes  and 
effects  in  some  of  the  phenomena  of  everyday 
life.  The  instinct  of  group  safety,  developing 
at  the  expense  of  the  blinder  and  more  primal 
instincts  of  self-gratification  and  self-preserva- 
tion, haltingly  evolved  into  a  dim  consciousness 
of  the  need  of  restraining  one  set  of  actions 
and  of  fostering  an  opposite  set  of  actions. 
Those  groups  and  tribes  in  which  this  instinct 
was  best  developed,  or  in  which  it  earliest 
ripened  into  a  primitive  consciousness,  waxed 
strong  in  numbers  and  power,  while  those  in 

1  Biicher,  pp.  15-16.  2  Ibid.,  p.  14. 

90 


CLASS   ETHICS 

which  it  was  weakest  were  eliminated,  or  left 
hopelessly  behind  in  the  race.1  This  instinct 
became  greatly  strengthened  through  the  devel- 
opment of  the  sense  of  kinship  —  of  the  blood 
bond. 

"  There  was  very  little  altruism  in  primitive  mo- 
rality. There  was  the  parental  instinct  that  exists  in 
animals,  and  there  soon  came  to  be  an  attachment 
to  kindred  generally,  which  can  scarcely  be  detected 
below  the  human  plane.  Still  later,  as  kindred 
became  the  group,  the  attachment  became  coexten- 
sive with  the  group,  but  did  not  extend  to  other 
groups,  although  these  may  have  been  merely  off- 
shoots from  the  same  group,  broken  away  when  the 
group  grew  too  large  to  hold  together.  Still  later, 
when  the  primitive  hordes  combined  to  form  clans} 
there  was  more  or  less  attachment  among  all  the 
members  of  the  clan,  and  the  sentiment  expanded 
pari  passu  with  the  expanding  group  until  the  end 
of  the  primitive  peaceful  stage  of  social  development. 
But  it  was  always  a  blood  bond,  and  the  sole  basis  of 
adhesion  was  that  of  real  or  fictitious  kinship."  2 

1  Kropotkin's    chapter  on   "  Mutual   Aid    among   Savages," 
though  slighting  some  of  the  economic  and  psychologic  factors 
treated  by  other  writers,  is  particularly  instructive  on  this  point. 

2  Ward,  p.  187.    It  is  perhaps  superfluous  to  explain  that  what 
Professor  Ward  means  by  "  attachment "  between   members  of 
the  same  family  group,  is  to  be  distinguished  from  what  we  have 
here  described  as  the  "  instinct  of  group  safety."     The  latter  is 
manifested  in  times  of  stress  long   before  there  is  any  general 
development  of  the  sense  of  kinship.     In  the  lower  animals  the 

91 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

Formal  customs  arose  —  interdictions  of  cer- 
tain acts,  compulsory  practice  of  certain  other 
acts  —  all  based  on  the  supposed  needs  of  the 
group,  as  understood  in  the  light  of  the  blood 
bond.  The  individual  might  be  injured  or 
slain ;  but  such  injury  or  death  was  a  mere 
tort,  which  could  be  settled  for.1  Not  so  an 
injury  to  the  clan  or  tribe,  which  was  punished 
as  a  crime.  Still  later,  the  obligations  based 
upon  the  blood  bond  gave  way  to  the  larger 
considerations  made  necessary  by  the  interests 
of  the  greater  community.  Thus  the  first 
moral  standards  were  bound  up  in  considera- 
tions, however  dimly  held,  of  the  security  of 
the  community,  group,  or  horde. 

sense  of  kinship,  except  transitorily  in  the  case  of  mother  and  off- 
spring, is  notoriously  weak ;  yet  the  instinct  of  group  safety  is 
strikingly  illustrated  in  the  conduct  of  many  species.  "  It  is  not 
love,  and  not  even  sympathy  (understood  in  its  proper  sense)," 
writes  Kropotkin,  "  which  induces  a  herd  of  ruminants  or  of 
horses  to  form  a  ring  in  order  to  resist  an  attack  of  wolves ;  not 
love  which  induces  wolves  to  form  a  pack  for  hunting.  ...  It 
is  a  feeling  infinitely  wider  than  love  or  personal  sympathy  —  an 
instinct  that  has  been  slowly  developed  among  animals  and  men 
in  the  course  of  an  extremely  long  evolution,  and  which  has 
taught  animals  and  men  alike  the  force  they  can  borrow  from 
the  practice  of  mutual  aid  and  support."  Mutual  Aid,  p.  13. 

1  The  general  subject  of  property  reparation  for  injury  or 
death  has  been  exhaustively  treated  by  Sir  Henry  Maine  and 
others.  For  an  interesting  passage  applying  to  the  Greeks  of 
the  Homeric  age,  see  H.  S.  Keller,  Homeric  Society,  p.  283  and 
following. 

92 


CLASS   ETHICS 


During  the  long  struggle  of  races  and  the 
subsequent  and  yet  continuing  struggle  of 
classes,  these  customs,  sanctions,  and  restraints 
have  gradually  evolved  into  ethical  codes. 
Always  and  everywhere  these  codes  have 
developed,  for  the  most  part  automatically,  in 
accord  with  the  supposed  specific  needs  of  the 
group,  section,  or  race  which  adhered  to  them. 
All  the  tribal  codes  embodied  what  Dr.  Edward 
A.  Ross,  following  Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton,  calls  an 
ethical  dualism.  There  was  one  set  of  pre- 
cepts for  the  tribe,  another  set  for  those  not  of 
the  tribe. 

"All  tribal  religions  preach  a  dualism  of  ethics, 
one  for  the  members  of  the  tribe  who  are  bound  to- 
gether by  ties  of  kinship  and  by  union  to  preserve 
existence,  and  the  other  for  the  rest  of  the  world. 
To  the  former  are  due  aid,  kindness,  justice,  truth, 
and  fair  dealing;  to  the  latter  enmity,  hatred,  injury, 
falsehood,  and  deceit.  The  latter  is  just  as  much  a 
duty  as  the  former,  and  is  just  as  positively  enjoined 
by  both  religion  and  tribal  law." 1 

So  long  as  the  tribe  was  homogeneous,  with 
the  same  gods,  the  same  customs,  and  in  the 
main  the  same  economic  interests,  this  ethical 

1  D.  G.  Brinton,  The  Religion  of  Primitive  Peoples,  p.  228. 

93 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

dualism  remained  sharply  defined.  But  with 
the  blending  of  tribes  into  the  larger  organiza- 
tions, its  grosser  features  tended  to  decline. 
The  expansion  of  mutual  interests  necessarily 
evolved  more  reciprocal  codes.  But  the  change 
toward  an  increasing  organization  of  society 
involved  also  a  differentiation  of  interests ;  and 
the  various  codes,  reflecting  this  change,  passed 
from  a  dualistic  to  a  complex  phase,  and  came 
to  express  the  varied  relations  and  duties  of  the 
individual  to  his  family,  his  specific  group  and 
his  clan.  The  differentiation  of  employments 
brought  other  changes.  Masses  of  men  work- 
ing in  common,  or  when  isolated  working 
under  like  conditions,  develop  one  set  of  be- 
liefs of  what  is  right  and  wrong;  priests  and 
warriors,  clerks  and  reeves,  with  different  func- 
tions and  interests,  still  other  beliefs.  And/ 
though,  everywhere  and  always,  some  general 
code,  according  with  the  economic  and  political 
needs  of  the  dominant  class,  is  sought  to  be 
imposed,  it  is  resisted,  or  at  the  best  is  but  im- 
perfectly blended  with  that  which  is  naturally 
evolved  out  of  the  conditions  of  daily  labor. 

Class  instinct  is  the  modern  form  of  group 
instinct.  The  economic  interests  of  a  group  of 
primitive  men  were  homogeneous.  The  antag- 
onisms of  such  a  group  were  thus  necessarily 

94 


CLASS   ETHICS 

directed  against  external  forces.  But  the  in- 
dustrialization of  the  world,  in  sharply  defining 
the  functions  and  interests  of  economic  classes, 
has  transferred  these  antagonisms  to  warring 
sections  within  the  community.  Whether  or 
not  he  recognizes  the  existence  of  class,  the 
worker  instinctively  feels  that  certain  standards 
and  certain  practices  accord  with  his  interests, 
not  as  an  individual,  but  as  a  worker ;  and  he 
seeks,  in  so  far  as  he  may,  to  live  by  them, 
against  all  the  world.  The  physician  or  the 
tradesman,  though  he  never  heard  of  an  eco- 
nomic class,  has  the  same  feeling — and  his 
conduct  exemplifies  his  belief. 

A  set  of  ethical  notions,  a  code  of  ethical 
precepts,  based  on  particular  modes  of  industry 
or  service  or  other  means  of  income,  thus  de- 
velops in  each  class ;  and  the  conscience  of  the 
individual,  plastic  to  this  material  pressure, 
sanctions  the  acts  which  are  supposedly  need- 
ful for  self -advantage.  Financier,  retainer,  social 
servant,  producer,  trader  —  each  of  these  has  his 
specific  code.  Among  these  codes  there  are 
certain  general  resemblances,  since  all  develop 
under  the  same  system  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution, and  since  all  those  of  the  subordinate 
classes  are  influenced  more  or  less  by  the  code 
which  the  ruling  class  always  seeks  to  impose, 

95 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

But  they  differ  in  special  features  in  accord 
with  the  necessary  antagonisms  of  class  inter- 
est and  function. 

II 

Class  differences  do  not,  as  it  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  admit,  explain  all  human  antagonisms. 
Many  of  these  are  based  on  ideological  factors, 
and  though  such  factors  may  in  turn  generally 
be  traced  to  material  bases,  they  may  conven- 
iently be  considered,  for  any  particular  time  and 
place,  as  truly  ideological.  Society  has  become 
differentiated,  not  only  into  economic  classes, 
but  into  political  states  and  religious  sects ;  and 
this  differentiation  has  brought  about  a  com- 
plex web  of  interests  and  a  consequent  com- 
plexity of  ethical  standards.  The  average  man 
acts,  under  certain  circumstances,  with  regard 
to  his  religion,  under  other  circumstances  with 
regard  to  his  state  or  government  or  political 
party.  But  it  is  his  primary  interest  —  his 
interest  connected  with  the  economic  class  to 
which  he  belongs  —  which  determines  the  gen- 
eral cast  of  his  thinking,  which  modifies  or 
even  entirely  negatives  his  acceptance  of  the 
ethical  code  embodied  in  his  professed  religion, 
and  which  determines  the  general  range  and 
character  of  his  actions. 

96 


CLASS   ETHICS 

The  storekeeper,  for  instance,  may  be  Catho- 
lic, Protestant,  Jew,  or  agnostic.  He  may 
be  Republican,  Democrat,  Prohibitionist,  or 
Populist.  But  it  is  not  observable  that  these 
ideological  differences  cause  any  striking  dis- 
similarities in  his  methods  of  carrying  on  busi- 
ness. If  cheaper  prices  and  better  merchandise 
are  to  be  found  in  stores  where  Gamaliel 
or  Hillel,  rather  than  John  Calvin  or  Pius  X 
or  Thomas  Paine,  is  reverenced,  the  fact  bears 
but  small  relation  to  the  religious  or  philo- 
sophical creed  of  the  trader.  Class  interest  and 
function  determine  his  business  conduct,  and 
the  slight  differences  discoverable  in  the  mode 
are  traceable  only  to  the  personal  equation  — 
to  differences  in  forethought,  energy,  and  skill 
in  bargaining.  Further,  it  must  be  said  that 
the  larger  creeds  themselves  take  on  a  hue  and 
character  determined  by  the  prevailing  form  of 
production  and  the  nature  of  class  relations; 
and  that  whatever  the  claim  for  these  creeds  — 
of  divine  origin,  of  universal  applicability,  of 
immutable  validity  —  they  change  inevitably 
from  age  to  age  in  accord  with  their  economic 
environment. 

How  it  has  happened  that,  despite  the  eternal 
warfare  of  communities  and  classes,  ethical 
codes  intended  for  universal  application  have 
H  97 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

been  formulated  and  insistently  preached,  we 
need  not  here  discuss.  It  is  certain  that  for  more 
than  two  millenniums  philosophers,  teachers 
of  religion,  and  others  somewhat  removed  from 
the  pressure  of  the  class  struggle,  have  sought 
to  instil  into  mankind  a  more  perfect  ethics,  a 
moral  code  uncircumscribed  by  sectional  inter- 
est. But  though  the  effect  of  such  teaching 
has  been  a  modification  to  some  slight  extent 
of  the  fratricidal  struggle  among  mankind,  the 
ideal  sought  is  an  utter  futility  so  long  as  indi- 
vidualist competition  for  the  means  of  life, 
however  altered  or  refined,  continues.  That 
mode  of  production  and  distribution  compels 
the  segregation  of  men  into  classes  and  the 
waging  of  a  class  struggle  for  the  means  of  life, 
and  that  struggle  determines  the  ethical  con- 
cepts and  practices  of  the  combatants. 

Ill 

The  paramount  economic  interest  of  a  class 
thus  becomes  the  basis  of  the  conscience  of  the 
individuals  composing  that  class.  The  con- 
science of  the  wage-earning  producer  justifies 
or  approves  a  set  of  actions  which  to  the  trader 
are  vicious  and  unfair.  No  less  vicious  and 
unfair  appear  to  the  producers  many  of  the  acts 

98 


CLASS   ETHICS 

of  the  traders.  A  thousand  and  one  deceptive 
devices  for  inducing  a  customer  to  buy  are 
practised  by  traders  of  marked  religiosity,  with- 
out a  thought  of  any  infringement  of  the  moral 
law.  The  degree  to  which  the  adulteration  of 
staple  goods  and  the  substitution  of  inferior 
goods  has  grown  in  the  world's  markets  appeals 
to  all  classes  except  those  of  the  traders  and 
fabricators  as  something  monstrous,  yet  to 
many,  if  not  most,  of  the  members  of  these 
latter  classes,  such  acts  are  not  only  justifiable 
but  emulatory,  and  the  threatened  intervention 
of  the  state  in  behalf  of  pure  food  and  drugs, 
honest  fabrics,  and  "  unsophisticated  "  merchan- 
dise .generally  is  looked  upon  as  oppressive 
and  confiscatory. 

Even  traders  who  have  developed  or  absorbed 
some  general  concept  of  social  ethics  are  able, 
without  violence  to  their  consciences,  to  justify 
substitution  and  adulteration.  As  any  well- 
informed  person  knows,  the  practice  of  substi- 
tuting inferior  and  harmful  drugs  has  become 
common  in  late  years,  at  least  in  the  cities.  A 
recent  investigation  in  New  York  City  showed 
that  three  hundred  and  fifteen  out  of  three 
hundred  and  seventy-three  druggists  to  whom 
prescriptions  for  phenacetin  were  presented  sup- 
plied instead  an  adulterated  drug  or  a  substitute. 

99 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

Yet  when,  a  year  ago,  an  attempt  was  made  to 
remedy  evils  of  this  kind  by  a  law  compelling 
the  filling  of  prescriptions  by  the  drugs  called 
for,  the  legislation  was  bitterly  fought.  The 
argument  on  which  the  druggists  staked  their 
cause  was  a  social  and  ethical  one.  It  was  that 
physicians  are  notoriously  careless,  or  at  least 
absent-minded,  and  often  prescribe  strychnine 
for  quinine,  or  perhaps  prussic  acid  for  boracic 
acid.  Therefore,  were  the  option  and  discre- 
tion of  the  druggists  as  to  what  should  be  put  in 
a  prescription  to  be  taken  from  them,  the  result 
would  be  a  wholesale  poisoning  of  the  com- 
munity. The  argument  was  pressed  home 
with  every  asseveration  of  devotion  to  the  com- 
munity's welfare,  and  the  Solons  at  Albany 
declined  to  pass  the  bill. 

It  would  be  idle  to  say  in  behalf  of  the  trader 
who  substitutes  or  adulterates  that  he  is  merely 
imitating  his  fellows,  for  some  traders  must 
take  the  initiative,  and  many  must  resort  to  the 
practice  without  knowledge  of  the  actions  of 
their  fellows.  It  would  be  equally  idle  to 
charge  him  with  the  conscious  wish  to  cheat, 
since  there  are  really  but  few  persons  who  can 
make  this  admission  to  themselves ;  still  more 
idle  to  charge  that  he  is  consciously  willing  to 
jeopard  another's  life.  He  substitutes  because 

100 


CLASS   ETHICS 

his  economic  function  and  interest  are  to  make 
profit,  and  because  such  substitution  is  an  easy 
and  practicable  means  of  profit-making.  His 
class  conscience  minimizes  the  known  evils  of 
a  particular  action,  and  emphasizes  only  the 
expectant  benefits  to  himself.  \The  expecta- 
tion of  profit  is  perhaps  the  most  powerful 
all  known  solvents  of  ethical  standards.  \ 

IV 

The  beliefs  which  a  class  holds,  as  a  result  of 
its  economic  relations,  are  generally  sincere 
beliefs,  and  are  held,  in  the  main,  unconsciously 
of  their  determining  cause.  There  is  a  spiritual 
alchemy  which  transmutes  the  base  metal  of 
self-interest  into  the  gold  of  conscience;  the 
transmutation  is  real,  and  the  resulting  frame 
of  mind  is  not  hypocrisy,  but  conscience.  It  is 
a  class  conscience,  and  therefore  partial  and 
imperfect,  having  little  to  do  with  absolute 
ethics.  But  partial  and  imperfect  as  it  is,  it  is 
generally  sincere.  It  is  most  obviously  so 
among  those  of  the  two  extreme  classes  who 
battle  for  advantage  from  such  opposite  bases. 
Members  of  the  same  community,  of  the  same 
political  party,  perhaps  of  the  same  secret  society, 
taught  by  the  same  teachers,  informed  by  the 

101 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

same  newspapers,  enrolled  (let  us  imagine) 
in  the  same  church,  the  employer  and  the 
employee  will  yet  differ  diametrically  on 
ethical  questions  of  material  interest,  and  do 
it  honestly.  For  the  code  of  each  is  based 
upon  things  more  fundamental  than  ideas  or 
sentiments.  It  is  based  upon  the  economic 
life. 

But  the  class  conscience  may  also  be  honest 
in  the  person  of  the  social  servant  who,  blind 
to  his  real  mission  and  his  right  function, 
preaches  or  teaches  the  class  ethics  of  the  rulers 
as  a  social  code  obligatory  upon  all.  When, 
for  example,  a  respected  expounder  of  the  creed 
of  the  Nazarene  carpenter  tells  the  public 
with  solemn  face  that  the  great  enemies  of  the 
freedom  of  the  country  are  those  who  would 
forbid  a  man  to  sell  his  labor  for  such  price  as 
he  is  compelled  to  accept — in  brief,  the  labor 
unionists  —  the  statement  is,  or  may  be,  a  con- 
scientious judgment.  Such  a  teacher  may  be 
honest;  he  may  really  believe  this  to  be  a 
self-sustaining  proposition ;  he  may  be  quite 
unconscious  that  the  main  cause  of  his  hold- 
ing this  belief  is  the  fact  that  he  never  was 
a  producer,  never  had  any  consciousness  of 
the  pressing  needs  of  the  producers  as  a 
class,  and  therefore  never  had  any  of  the  kind 

102 


CLASS   ETHICS 

of    ethical    feeling   which    that   consciousness 
produces. 

Such  a  teacher  is  a  retainer,  even  if  an  un- 
conscious one ;  and  it  is  his  retainer  conscience 
which  finds  quick  and  sharp  expression  when 
he  sees  the  "  liberty  "  of  the  one  man  interfered 
with  in  behalf  of  the  interests  of  the  group  of 
which  that  man  .is  a  part.  His  conscience,  a 
reflex  of  the  trader  conscience,  cannot  interpret 
liberty  in  any  other  than  the  negative,  eighteenth- 
century  sense,  because  so  interpreted  and  actu- 
alized it  best  accords  with  the  interests  of  the 
employing  class.  Such  a  conscience  cannot 
understand  by  the  term  the  "  positive  power  or 
capacity  "  which  each  man  exercises  or  holds 
"  through  the  help  or  security  given  him  by  his 
fellow-men,  and  which  he  in  turn  helps  to  secure 
for  them." l  All  that  such  a  conscience  under- 
stands by  the  term,  in  this  connection,  is  a 
vague  harmony  with  a  nebulous  principle 
learned  in  earlier  days.  That  actually  the  term 
means,  in  this  application,  the  potential  license 
of  the  industrial  freebooter  to  drag  down  the 
whole  body  of  wage-earners  by  working  for  less 
wages  and  under  meaner  conditions  than  will 
satisfy  the  rest,  does  not  penetrate  the  retainer 

1  Thomas  Hill  Green,  Essay  on  Liberal  Legislation  and  Free- 
dom of  Contract. 

103 


MASS   AND   CLASS 


conscience.  His  belief  is  a  class  belief,  arising 
out  of  his  manner  of  earning  a  living,  which 
involves  a  greater  or  less  assimilation  of 
trading-class  views  of  life. 


And  yet  it  must  be  said  that  it  requires  a 
certain  strain  upon  the  ordinary  usage  of  words, 
to  describe  such  teaching  as  "honest."  A 
capitalist  might  conscientiously  hold  that  low 
wages,  long  hours,  child  labor,  unguarded 
machinery,  the  open  shop,  unrestricted  output, 
and  Chinese  immigration  are  all  for  the  best 
interests  of  the  state.  They  are,  or  are  con- 
ceived to  be,  for  his  own  best  interests;  and 
identifying  his  own  interests  with  those  of 
society  at  large,  as  he  generally  does,  it  is  en- 
tirely possible  that  he  should  sincerely  hold  to 
such  anti-social  views.  The  mass  of  capitalists, 
in  every  decade  of  the  last  century,  bitterly 
fought  the  state's  increasing  assumption  of 
control  over  industry  in  behalf  of  the  helpless ; 
did  it,  as  they  are  doing  it  to-day,  with  candor 
and  sincerity,  with  a  belief  that  the  special  in- 
terests of  business  were  the  most  vital  interests 
of  society,  and  that  therefore  they  were  to  be 
fostered,  even  though  human  lives  were  snuffed 

104 


CLASS    ETHICS 

out  by  the  thousands  in  all  the  mines  and  work- 
shops of  the  land. 

But  the  minister,  the  teacher,  or  the  writer 
professes  a  social  service.  He  assumes  an 
attitude  beyond  and  above  the  special  interests 
of  class.  Rightly,  it  may  be  said  that  it  is  to 
his  economic  interest  to  preach  and  teach  the 
special  ethics  of  the  traders;  that  the  good 
jobs  go  to  those  who  are  most  eloquent,  insist- 
ent, and  thorough-going  in  expounding  such 
ethics,  while  the  poorer  jobs  or  no  jobs  at  all 
go  to  those  who  are  most  backward  or  slow- 
witted  in  such  exposition.  But  for  all  that, 
such  teaching  is  a  contradiction  of  his  professed 
mission.  His  tacit  contract  with  society  obliges 
him  to  serve  as  a  disseminator  of  learning,  or 
as  a  stimulator  of  social  virtues.  Generally  he 
is  a  man  of  education  and  experience.  He 
has  eaten  of  the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  knows, 
or  ought  to  know,  good  from  evil.  When, 
therefore,  he  serves  merely  as  a  reflector  of 
upper-class  ethics,  as  an  encourager  of  profit- 
hunger  and  a  suborner  of  treachery  and  be- 
trayal among  the  working  class,  he  perverts 
his  contractual  function  to  society. 

In  every  age  he  has,  as  a  general  thing,  dis- 
charged just  this  subservient  class  function. 
Whatever  the  form  of  his  religious  or  philo- 

105 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

sophical  creed,  he  has  moulded  his  hortatory 
ethics  to  the  fashion  of  the  special  require- 
ments of  the  dominant  class.  In  particular 
times,  when  great  social  and  industrial  move- 
ments making  for  revolutionary  changes  in  con- 
ditions have  been  under  way,  the  conduct  of  this 
group  has  sometimes  borne  the  appearance 
of  wholesale  prostitution.  Let  one  take,  for 
instance,  the  well-known  period  of  agitation 
for  the  education  and  factory  acts  in  England. 
The  rise  of  the  manufacturing  interests  brought 
forth  a  swarm  of  economists,  ministers,  and 
other  publicists,  the  general  mass  of  whose 
teachings  was  a  pure  reflex  of  the  code  devel- 
oped by  the  factory  lords.1  Though  the  un- 
speakable horrors  of  factory  life  at  the  time 
were  known  far  and  wide,  the  instructors  of 
the  people  were  almost  a  unit  against  inter- 
ference, and  it  was  only  through  the  interven- 
tion of  the  landed  aristocracy,  a  class  jealous 
of  the  manufacturers,  that  a  change  was 
brought  about.  The  economists,  whom  Sad- 
ler, the  Tory  leader,  described  as  "  the  pests 
of  society  and  the  persecutors  of  the  poor/' 

1  For  an  able  and  convincing  statement  of  the  class  attitudes 
of  some  of  the  economists  of  the  time,  see  John  R.  Commons, 
"Discussion  of  the  President's  Address,1'  Proceedings  of  the 
Twelfth  Annual  Meeting  of  the  American  Economic  Association. 

106 


CLASS   ETHICS 

were  nearly  all,  with  the  exception  of  Malthus 
and  McCulloch,  bitterly  hostile  to  the  factory 
acts.1  It  was  Nassau  W.  Senior,  the  first  pro- 
fessor of  political  economy  at  Oxford,  who 
discovered,  in  1836,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Manchester  manufacturers,  that  all  factory 
profits  were  made  in  the  last  hour  of  the  work- 
ing day;  and  that  the  reduction  of  the  day 
(then  eleven  and  a  half  hours  long)  by  this  one 
hour  would  paralyze  the  great  industries  of 
England.2  The  list  of  publicists  who  opposed 
these  humane  and  necessary  acts  includes 
Bright,  Cobden,  Bowring,  Roebuck,  and  Joseph 
Hume.  Even  so  just  a  man  as  John  Stuart 
Mill,  though  he  could  recognize  the  pressure 
of  upper-class  morality  on  the  subordinate 
classes,  was  himself  sufficiently  under  the  spell 
to  oppose  the  factory  acts  except  as  to  the 
provisions  relating  to  children. 

The  vicars  of  the  lowly  Nazarene  were,  for 
the  most  part,  in  the  same  class.  Certain  of 
the  High  Church  clergy  spoke  out  for  the  fac- 
tory victims,  but  the:  evangelicals,  nqn-confojm- 
"ists,  and  independents  generally  sided  with  the 
factory  lords. 

1  Leslie  Stephen,  The  Utilitarians,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  172-176. 

2  See  Karl  Marx,  Capital,  Part  III,  Chapter  IX,  section  3, 
for  an  inimitable  characterization  of  Senior's  plea. 

107 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"  Shaftesbury  complained  that  he  could  not  get  the 
evangelicals  to  take  up  the  factory  movement.  They 
had  been  the  mainstay  of  the  anti-slavery  movement,1 
but  they  did  not  seem  to  be  troubled  about  white 
slavery.  The  reason,  no  doubt,  was  obvious :  the 
evangelicals  were  mainly  of  the  middle  class,  and 
class  prejudices  were  too  strong  for  the  appeals  to 
religious  principles."  2 

A  like  attitude,  a  reflex  of  the  upper-class 
attitude,  was  taken  by  the  great  mass  of  the 
instructors  of  the  public  during  the  early  pe- 
riod of  the  movement  for  an  education  act 
Here,  however,  the  Utilitarian  economists  were 
at  loggerheads  with  the  other  publicists.  For 
while  they  could  look  philosophically  upon  the 
worse  than  Herodian  slaughter  of  the  inno- 
cents in  the  factories,  they  could  yet  stand  for 
certain  provisions  for  the  education  of  the 
masses.  But  the  non-Utilitarian  publicists  were 
for  the  most  part  antagonistic,  and  though 
the  Whitbread  bill  was  introduced  in  1807,  ^ 
was  not  until  after  the  Reform  bill  (1832)  that 
even  the  beginnings  of  national  aid  in  educa- 
tion could  be  carried  against  this  opposition, 
and  not  until  1870  that  anything  approaching 
an  adequate  act  was  passed.  The  distinguished 

1  It  did  not  conflict  with  their  economic  interests. 

2  Stephen,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  178. 

108 


CLASS   ETHICS 

clergyman  and  educator,  Dr.  Andrew  Bell, 
could  write  in  explanation  of  the  plea  that 
the  Whitbread  bill  was  not  revolutionary  or 
dangerous :  — 

"  It  is  not  proposed  that  the  children  of  the  poor 
be  educated  in  an  expensive  manner,  or  even  taught 
to  write  and  cipher.  .  .  .  There  is  a  risk  of  elevating, 
by  an  indiscriminate  education,  the  minds  of  those 
doomed  to  the  drudgery  of  daily  labor  above  their 
condition,  and  thereby  rendering  them  discontented 
and  unhappy  in  their  lot  It  may  suffice  to  teach 
the  generality,  on  an  economical  plan,  to  read  their 
Bibles  and  understand  the  doctrines  of  our  holy 
religion." 

The  famous  writer  and  cleric,  Hannah  More, 
considered  a  radical  in  her  day,  also  illustrates 
the  temper  of  her  class  by  her  declaration  that 
"  she  wished  the  poor  to  be  able  to  read  their 
Bibles  and  to  be  qualified  for  domestic  duties, 
but  not  to  write  or  to  be  enabled  to  read  Tom 
Paine,  or  be  encouraged  to  rise  above  their 
position."  And  the  great  literary  light  of  the 
Whigs,  Dr.  Parr,  argued  "  that  the  poor  ought 
to  be  taught,  but  admitted  that  the  enterprise 
had  its  limits.  The  *  Deity  Himself  had  fixed 
a  great  gulf  between  them  [selves]  and  the 


poor.' " 


1  Stephen,  Vol.  I,  p.  III. 


MASS  AND   CLASS 


VI 


All  this  was  of  England,  says  the  patriotic 
American,  and  did  not  and  could  not  have 
happened  in  our  own  land.  True ;  but  if  the 
exhortations  of  the  earlier  American  preachers 
and  publicists  reveal  less  opposition  to  factory 
acts  than  did  those  of  their  English  contempo- 
raries, it  is  for  the  excellent  reason  that  there 
was  no  factory-reform  movement  for  them  to 
oppose,  and  that  was  because  there  were  few 
or  no  factories.  And  if  again  they  were  more 
favorable  to  popular  education  than  were  their 
English  contemporaries,  it  was  because,  among 
other  things,  the  weaker  organization  of  in- 
dustry in  America  did  not  necessitate,  or  seem 
to  necessitate,  the  existence  of  a  large  class  of 
illiterate  and  helpless  proletarians.  The  ,pecul- 
iarly  individualistic  structure  of  American  in- 
dustrial society  in  the  earlier  days,  wherein 
every  unit  was  a  possible  competitor  with  every 
other,  made  the  equipment  of  at  least  a  moder- 
ate education  a  valuable  asset  both  to  the 
individual  and  the  nation.  The  ruling  class, 
who  at  first  were  the  landed  aristocracy,  and 
at  a  later  time  a  junta  of  tradesmen  and  plant- 
ers, saw  no  particular  harm,  and  perhaps  some 

no 


CLASS   ETHICS 

good,  in  education  for  the  masses,  and  (at 
least  after  Jefferson's  time)  did  not  generally 
oppose  it ;  and  the  instructors  of  the  people, 
under  no  spell  of  adverse  influences  from 
above,  for  the  time  maintained  a  true  social 
service  and  heartily  supported  universal  educa- 
tion. 

The  first  factory  reform  agitation  in  the 
United  States  was  coincident  with  the  first 
working-class  movement,  roughly  from  1826 
to  1834.  It  received  no  aid  whatever,  so  far 
as  is  now  known,  from  the  class  of  persons 
here  designated  as  social  servants.  The  move- 
ment of  1841-1848,  however,  was  led  by  certain 
members  of  this  class.  It  began  in  a  blaze  of 
sentiment,  and  died  out  when  that  senti- 
ment was  extinguished.  It  marked  the  one 
time  in  the  history  of  our  people  when  a 
considerable  number  of  the  class  of  social 
servants  allied  themselves  openly  and  enthu- 
siastically with  the  cause  of  the  workers.  If 
in  any  time  when  the  issue  was  sharply 
defined  they  have  stood,  as  a  class,  for 
neither  workers  nor  employers,  but  for  an 
ideal  embracing  the  interests  of  all  society, 
the  precise  period  is  not  ascertainable.  In 
practically  all  times  the  natural  promptings 
arising  from  the  nature  of  their  function  have 

in 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

been  overborne  by  the  pressure  of  ruling-class 
influences. 

In  this  day  one  may  inerrantly  prophesy 
what  theme  will  next  be  heard  dominant  in  the 
chorus  arising  from  pulpit,  chair,  and  sanctum, 
by  learning  what  thing  it  is  that  the  trading 
class  next  demands  for  the  protection  or  foster- 
ing of  its  interests.  The  righteousness  of  the 
open  shop,  the  injustice  of  a  restricted  output, 
the  criminal  imposture  of  the  union  label,  the 
moral  heroism  of  the  "scab,"  though  occasion- 
ally voiced  by  some  of  the  more  pronounced 
retainers,  were  unapprehended  concepts  to  the 
average  publicist  until  recently  pointed  out  to 
them  by  the  manufacturers.  The  lawlessness 
of  capital  in  every  phase  of  its  activity,  the  par- 
ticular lawlessness  and  brutality  now  prevalent 
in  Colorado,  are  clothed  in  an  impenetrable 
veil  to  the  eyes  of  the  "safe"  preacher,* the 
"  conservative  "  economist,  and  the  "  sane  " 
press-writer;  but  the  slightest  infraction  of 
the  law  by  a  striking  workman  is  seen  by 
them  as  with  an  X-ray. 

This  type  of  social   servant  —  the  minister, 
teacher,  or   writer  —  is   thus   one   whose  con- 
tractual function  to  society  is  usually,  though 
\  nojt  invariably,  perverted  to  a  special  class  ser- 
1  vice.     He  may  be  "  honest,"  in  that  he  follows 

112 


CLASS   ETHICS 

his  economic  interest,  as  do  the  members  of 
other  classes;  but  in  that  he  constantly  as- 
sumes a  social  attitude  and  at  the  same  time 
serves  a  subservient  class  function,  he  is  at 
the  best  a  contradiction,  and  at  the  worst  — 
let  us  say,  a  charlatan. 


CHAPTER  V 

ETHICS  OF  THE  PRODUCERS 
I 

AMONG  producers  two  fundamental  moral 
convictions  have  arisen  and  gained  general 
acceptance.  They  are  the  ethic  of  usefulness 
and  the  ethic  of  fellowship.  The  ethic  of  use- 
fulness is  held  among  all  kinds  of  producers, 
farmers  as  well  as  employees,  and  is  of  ancient 
standing ;  while  the  ethic  of  fellowship,  though 
it  has  sporadically  developed  among  peasants, 
serfs,  and  laborers  in  all  times,  has  reache'd  its 
completest  expression  only  among  the  modern 
proletariat,  and  has  become  widespread  only  in 
this  century. 

The  ethic  of  usefulness  is  the  conviction 
that  work  of  social  value  is  the  only  title  to 
income.  "  He  that  will  not  work,  neither  shall 
he  eat,"  is  its  expression  :  only  he  that  does 
his  part  in  the  needful  toil  of  the  world  may 
rightly  enjoy  a  share  in  the  harvest.  It  is 
characteristically  a  proletarian  ethic,  no  matter 

114 


ETHICS   OF   THE   PRODUCERS 

by  whom  first  uttered  or  where  found ;  for  it 
gains  its  most  general  acceptance  among  the 
landless  and  toolless  producers. 

The  ethic  of  fellowship  is  the  conviction  of 
the  duty  of  friendly  association  and  collective 
effort  for  mutual  benefit.  It  is  an  outgrowth 
of  group  gregariousness,  first  instinctive,  then 
emotionalized,  then  reasoned.  The  units  of 
even  the  non-fraternal  classes  manifest  an 
approximation  to  this  ethic  when  class  inter- 
ests are  threatened,  even  though  in  the  internal 
affairs  of  these  classes,  in  the  struggle  of  indi- 
vidual against  individual,  it  is  unapprehended 
and  unfelt.  The_shrewd  trader  may  .sell  bo- 
rated  beef  or  sophisticated  coffee  to  his  fellow- 
trader,  if  he  can,  with  an  untroubled  conscience 
and  a  joyous  sense  of  the  freedom  of  com-  ' 
merce ;  but  should  interests  common  to  himself 
and  his  class  fellow  be  threatened,  at  least  some 
sordid  reflex  or  primitive  forerunner  of  this 
ethic  is  instantly  stimulated  into  action.  Of 
such  a  nature  are  the  various  mergers,  com- 
munities of  interest,  pools,  gentlemen's  agree- 
ments, and  the  like,  of  which  the  great 
speculators  in  the  means  of  the  people's  life 
give  us  so  many  modern  instances.  While  the 
individual  battle  proceeds  merrily  and  not  too 
disastrously  to  the  chief  combatants,  there  is 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

small  tendency  to  associate ;  only  when  the 
conflict  threatens  general  demoralization  does 
the  tendency  awaken.  It  embodies  no  feeling 
of  fellowship,  in  the  higher  ethical  sense;  no 
concept  of  fraternity  or  of  social  good,  hardly 
even  of  class  good.  The  association  is  simply 
that  of  individuals  of  a  particular  and  narrow 
interest  for  immediate  individual  advantage. 
It  is  only  among  the  proletarians  and  their 
predecessors  in  the  historic  struggles  of  the 
world,  and  even  then,  as  a  general  thing,  only 
among  those  organized,  that  this  ethic  of  fel- 
lowship has  thus  far  developed  into  a  force 
which  has  sensibly  restrained  the  fratricidal 
struggle  of  individuals. 

"  The  assertion  is  here  ventured  that  no  intelligent 
man  has  ever  mingled  among  business  men  and 
union  workmen  without  being  impressed  by  the  im- 
measurable difference  in  the  codes  of  conduct  of 
these  two  classes.  Among  union  workmen,  trained 
in  the  spirit  and  practice  of  fellowship,  there  has 
been  developed  a  code  of  the  nicest  particularity 
affecting  every  detail  of  their  business  relationship. 
In  every  shop,  but  more  conspicuously  in  those  shops 
where  piecework  is  done,  there  is  an  established, 
though  frequently  amended  code,  intended  to  guard 
against  every  possible  infringement  of  one  another's 
rights.  It  involves  [the  restraint  of]  actions,  which, 
to  an  outsider,  would  seem  infinitely  petty;  yet  to 

116 


ETHICS   OF   THE   PRODUCERS 

the  workers  even  the   pettiest   of   these  restrictions 
are  important,  since  they  promote  justice."  l 

The  insistence  by  trade-unions  and  other  labor 
societies  on  full  normal  pay  for  their  less  efficient 
members  —  a  policy  harshly  criticised  by  the 
trader  conscience  —  is  a  further  manifestation  of 
this  ethic  of  fellowship ;  and  above  all  is  the  posi- 
tion voiced  in  the.  common  adage  of  organized 
workmen,  "An  injury  to  one  is  the  concern  of  all." 

Out  of  these  two  ethics  —  the  ethic  of  use- 
fulness and  the  ethic  of  fellowship  —  slowly 
arises  the  concept  of  a  moral  law  of  economic 
solidarity.  Solidarity  is  defined  by  the  Century 
Dictionary  as  the  "  mutual  responsibility  exist- 
ing between  two  or  more  persons;  communion 
of  interests  and  responsibilities."  This  law  de- 
mands that  all  men  shall  be  useful  workers,  that 
no  man  shall  take  any  advantage  at  the  expense 
of  another,  and  that  all  such  useful  workers  shall 
stand  together  for  the  welfare  of  all.  It  is  a 
law  the  full  scope  and  bearing  of  which  are 
doubtless  but  dimly  apprehended,  except  by  the 
few ;  but  its  recognition  becomes  more  general 
with  the  awakening  consciousness  on  the  part 
of  the  producers  of  their  actual  status  and  their 
destined  mission.  It  is  a  law  which  is  first  ap- 

1  From  an  article,  "  The  Progress  of  the  Future,"  in  Success, 
September,  1903. 

117 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

prehended  in  its  inchoate  state  as  a  feeling,  — 
a  feeling  arising  naturally  out  of  the  way  in 
which  the  producers  make  their  living  and 
their  observation  of  the  way  in  which  the 
units  of  other  classes  make  their  living.  In 
its  next  stage,  that  which  is  now  forming,  it 
is  a  definite  principle  of  conscience.  It  will 
mark  yet  another  stage  when  the  consciousness 
of  the  producers  sufficiently  awakens  to  enable 
them  to  assert  their  full  power.  That  other  and 
final  stage  will  be  the  embodiment  of  this  law 
in  the  industrial  and  social  system  of  the  nation. 
It  is  not  a  new  law ;  it  is  the  law  of  the  New 
Testament  and  of  ethical  teachers  in  many  ages 
and  among  many  peoples.  But  it  has  never 
become  the  recognized  law  of  any  nation,  be- 
cause never  yet  has  the  economic  class  which 
alone  holds  to  it,  been  in  a  position  to  feel  en- 
tirely sure  itself  of  the  validity  of  its  instinct, 
still  less  to  impose  it  upon  an  entire  people  as  the 
central  principle  of  a  nation's  social  life.  It  can 
become  an  institutional  law  only  by  the  awaken- 
ing in  the  minds  of  the  socially  useful  classes 
of  a  recognition  of  their  actual  status  and  their 
exact  relationship  to  the  socially  useless  classes. 
Out  of  this  recognition  will  inevitably  come  the 
conquest  by  the  ballot  of  the  political  powers 
and  the  abolition  of  all  the  parasitical  classes. 

118 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 


II 

That  the  conscience  of  the  wage-earning  pro- 
ducer sanctions  certain  acts  which  are  socially 
harmful  is  an  allegation  insistently  made  by  the 
traders,  and  yet  more  insistently  by  their  re- 
tainers. Such  charges  —  at  least  to  the  extent 
that  the  producer  actually  does  socially  harmful 
acts,  whether  or  not  his  conscience  approves  — 
form  the  burden  of  the  frequent  pronunciamen- 
tos  of  the  head  of  the  National  Association  of 
Manufacturers ;  of  the  moral  disquisitions  of  a 
large  number  of  ministers;  of  juridical  utter- 
ances of  a  large  number  of  lawyers  and  judges, 
and  of  the  occasional  public  utterances  of  such 
eminent  defenders  of  the  present  regime  as  ex- 
Assistant  Attorney  General  James  M.  Beck1 
and  President  Charles  W.  Eliot  of  Harvard 
University.  The  alleged  actions  of  union  min- 
ers during  the  anthracite  coal  strike  of  1902 
touched  to  the  quick  the  sense  of  righteousness 
of  traders  and  retainers  throughout  the  country. 
This  sense  of  righteousness,  it  may  be  noted  in 
passing,  lay  dormant  enough  so  long  as  the  rail- 
way and  coal  companies  violated  hourly  the 

1  See  particularly  his  address  before  the  Holland  Society,  New 
York  City,  January  20,  1904. 

119 


MASS   AND   CLASS 


Sherman  act  and  the  constitution  of  Pennsyl- 
vania; so  long  as  they  employed  child  labor, 
reduced  wages,  weighed  the  miners'  product 
falsely,  compelled  the  miners  to  buy  goods  at 
the  "  pluck-me "  stores  of  the  companies,  and 
forced  out  of  business  certain  independent  op- 
erators of  an  unsubmissive  turn  of  mind.  But  it 
was  stung  into  immediate  and  sharp  expression 
on  hearing  that  certain  union  miners  had  used 
violence  against  men  who  had  taken  their 
places. 

The  typical  expression  of  this  sort  may  per- 
haps be  found  in  the  sermon  delivered  by  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis  in  J^lymouth 
Church,  Brooklyn,  on  November  9,  1902.  It 
was  called,  in  full,  "  National  Righteousness  and 
Justice,  with  an  Outlook  upon  Labor's  Hatred 
of  Labor,  and  a  Plea  for  the  Poor  and  Weak." 
A  careful  perusal  of  the  Times  report  of  this 
justly  famous  sermon  reveals  little  justification 
for  so  extensive  and  comprehensive  a  title.  The 
central  clause, "  Labor's  Hatred  of  Labor,"  mean- 
ing the  disposition  of  the  union  man  to  oppress 
the  non-union  man,  expresses  its  main  burden. 
There  is  contained  in  it,  of  course,  the  conven- 
tional praise  of  the  union  "  when  rightly  con- 
ducted." Some  years  ago  even  this  concession 
would  have  been  impossible  in  such  a  sermon. 

1 20 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

But  it  has  now  become  a  stock  formula  with 
which  every  denunciator  of  labor  unions  must 
preface  his  assault,  in  order  to  assume  the  judi- 
cial bearing.  The  good  doctor  said,  among 
other  things :  — 

"The  disquieting  feature  of  the  situation  is  the 
suspicion,  the  distrust,  and  the  bitter  hatred  which 
produced  the  strike,  and  which  now  lie  smoulder- 
ing, like  quiescent  fires,  needing  time  only  to  pro- 
duce another  industrial  war.  Time  can  recover  the 
industrial  losses,  but  the  feuds  in  the  coal-fields, 
the  bitterness  between  union  and  non-union  men,  the 
uncompromising  hatred,  have  inflicted  wounds  which 
only  death  can  heal.  .  .  . 

"Organized  capital  has  deserted  non-union  men. 
Organized  labor  maltreats  them.  And  just  as  100 
soldiers,  organized  and  with  a  leader,  can  scatter  a 
crowd  of  10,000,  so  the  20  men  out  of  100  represent- 
ing organized  labor  terrorize  and  browbeat  the  80  non- 
union men,  who  are  being  driven  lower,  made  more 
and  more  ignorant,  more  poverty-stricken,  until  at 
last,  in  their  despair,  they  are  ready  to  turn  against 
the  capitalist  who  will  not  defend  them,  and  the 
union  men  who  maltreat  them,  and  the  country,  the 
protection  of  whose  laws  are  refused  them.  .  .  . 

"  For  every  twenty  union  men  and  their  families 
there  are  eighty  non-union  men  with  their  families. 
These  laboring  men  may  hate  capitalists,  but  labor's 
hatred  for  labor  burns  like  a  flame,  eats  like  nitric 
acid,  is  malignant  beyond  all  description. 

121 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"  Oh,  the  bitterness  with  which  labor  pursues,  not 
wicked  capital,  but  poor  and  helpless  labor ! " 

Labor's  defiance  of  the  law  —  this  is  the 
main  count  in  the  indictment.  And  by  whom, 
as  a  rule,  is  this  charge  pressed?  By  those 
who  live  on  the  bounty,  however  indirectly 
given,  of  the  men  whose  defiance  of  the  law  is 
deliberate,  shameless,  and  constant  —  not  like 
the  spontaneous  and  irresponsible  act  of  the 
man  goaded  to  desperation  on  seeing  another 
taking  his  job  from  him,  but  studied,  planned, 
organized,  and  carried  on  yea/  after  year,  often, 
if  not  generally,  by  the  aid  of  lawyers  and 
judges,  through  the  mechanism  of  the  law 
itself. 

An  ethical  teacher  who  condemns  the  men 
of  one  class  for  acts  which  those  of  another 
class  may  do  uncondemned  by  him,  is  a  teacher 
not  of  social  ethics,  but  of  class  ethics.  He  is, 
moreover,  as  a  rule,  a  teacher  not  of  the  natural 

r  ethics  of  his  own  class,  but  of  the  exploitative   j 
ethics  of  a  dominant  class,  in  support  of  whose  • 
interests    he    discharges    the    function    of    a 
retainer. 

It  is  true  that  the  striking  workman  is  some- 
times lawless.  But  if  it  can  be  shown  that  his 
occasional  lawless  acts  are  matched  or  exceeded 
by  acts  of  men  of  other  classes,  something  is 

122 


ETHICS   OF   THE   PRODUCERS 

afforded,  not  in  excuse  perhaps,  but  at  least  in 
mitigation  of  sentence.1  Now,  infractions  of 
the  law,  it  must  be  stated,  are  not  uncommon 
in  America.  The  Europeans  are  wont  to  look 
upon  us  as  a  particularly  lawless  people ;  and 
even  our  own  publicists,  in  times  of  truce 
between  labor  and  capital,  are  sometimes 
enabled  to  see  further  than  the  lawless  acts  of 
workmen  and  to  apply  the  charge  to  our  people 
as  a  whole.  Ambassador  Bayard,  some  years 
ago,  told  the  school  children  of  Boston,  Eng- 
land, that  we  were  a  factious  and  turbulent 
people,  and  that  it  required  the  firm  hand  and 
strong  will  of  a  man  like  Mr.  Grover  Cleveland 
to  hold  us  down.  The  high  authority  of  the 
United  States  Senate  was  employed,  it  is  true, 
in  the  reversal  of  this  judgment,  and  the  cen- 
suring of  Mr.  Bayard.  But  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  its  action  was  due  less  to  a  conviction  of 
the  heresy  of  the  judgment  than  to  a  lawless 
desire  to  do  hurt  to  Mr.  Cleveland. 

Perhaps  no  class  or  part  of  the  population  is 
entirely  exempt  from  occasional  infractions  of 
the  law.  If  one  examines  the  evidence  in  the 
late  Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd's  Wealth  Against 

1  A  considerable  part  of  the  remainder  of  this  chapter  has  been 
previously  published.  (The  Bricklayer  and  Mason,  New  York, 
June,  1903.) 

123 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

Commonwealth,  he  will  find  that  men  very 
eminent,  very  religious,  the  founders  of  univer- 
sities and  the  builders  of  churches,  may  indulge 
in  such  sprightly  activities  as  the  blowing  up 
of  a  competitor's  refinery,  or  of  openly  violating 
every  law  and  court  order  which  is  found  to  be 
in  the  remotest  way  objectionable.  In  a  neigh- 
boring state  one  will  find  certain  railroad 
companies  mining  coal  in  defiance  of  a  state 
constitution,  employing  children  in  defiance  of  a 
statute,  and  docking  coal  from  the  miners'  prod- 
uct in  defiance  of  the  eighth  commandment, 
not  to  speak  of  statutory  inhibitions  and  the 
decision  of  Commissioner  Wright.  It  is  true 
that  divine  sanction  is  claimed  for  these  acts ; 
for  the  chief  of  the  doers  appeals  to  a  higher 
law,  and  asserts  for  himself  and  his  comrades 
a  vicegerency  of  God ;  but  the  claim  is  not  yet 
universally  accepted,  and  the  deeds  are  thus 
(humanly  speaking)  lawless. 

In  nearly  every  state  where  factory  acts  have 
sought  to  give  some  protection   to  employed 
workmen,  an  observer  will  find  the  most  impu-  j 
dent  violations.     It  is  about  the  same  with  the, 
railroads.     The  Interstate  Commerce  Commis- 
sion, in  its  report  for  1901,  declared  that  the  ' 
decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court 
in  the  Trans-Missouri  case  and  the  Joint  Traffic 

124 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

Association  case  had  produced  no  practical 
effect  upon  the  railway  operations  of  the  coun- 
try. "  Pools  and  agreements  exist  now,  as  they 
did  before  these  decisions,  and  with  the  same 
general  effect."  Practically  all  transportation 
companies  habitually  transgress  the  law.  The 
frightful  General  Slocum  disaster,  with  its  nine 
hundred  dead,  was  made  possible  only  by  a 
studied  violation  of  every  legal  provision  for  the 
safeguarding  of  life  on  passenger  steamboats. 

Bribery  is  lawlessness  —  a  kind  of  lawlessness 
freighted  with  far  more  peril  to  the  republic 
than  any  violence  of  striking  workmen.  And 
yet  it  is  practised  hourly,  daily,  by  the  pillars 
of  religion  and  society,  the  men  from  whose 
lips  is  heard  so  unctuously  the  appeal  to  law 
and  order.  Bribe-money  is  put  forth  as  a  busi- 
ness investment  in  our  municipal  assemblies, 
our  courts,  our  state  assemblies,  and  even  in 
Congress.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
bribery  fund  (though  of  course  it  appears  under 
some  other  and  more  euphemistic  name)  is  a 
regular  account  in  the  fiscal  affairs  of  every  cor- 
poration having  a  quasi-public  character,  and  of 
all  the  important  ones  of  a  private  character. 
It  is  interesting  to  note,  for  instance,  that 
though  the  product  value  of  the  private  gas 
plants  of  the  nation  increased  during  the  last 

•125 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

decade  by  only  32.9  per  cent,  yet  the  expenses 
under  the  somewhat  mysterious  entry,  "  adver- 
tising, interest,  insurance,  repairs,  and  other 
sundry  expenses,"  increased  by  74.8  per  cent. 
There  is  no  doubt  as  to  what  this  means ;  nor 
can  any  one  well  doubt,  from  the  study  of 
recent  developments  in  New  York,  Philadel- 
phia, Pittsburg,  St.  Louis,  New  Orleans,  and 
Grand  Rapids,  the  enormous  growth  and  gen- 
eral prevalence  of  this  worst  form  of  lawless- 
ness —  bribery. 

The  more  violent  forms  of  violence  are  not 
absent  from  the  daily  life  of  the  nation.  Mob 
law  in  the  punishment  of  offenders  is  resorted 
to  —  frequently  in  the  North  and  West,  more 
frequently  in  the  South.  In  the  Far  West 
there  is  a  frequently  recurring  civil  war  be- 
tween sheep-herders  and  cattle-herders,  accom- 
panied with  enormous  slaughter  of  dumb 
animals,  and  not  infrequently  the  killing  of 
human  beings.  Then,  too,  in  certain  parts 
of  the  West,  when  times  grow  too  peaceable 
and  monotonous,  a  county-seat  war  breaks  out, 
and  scores  of  supporters  of  the  rival  towns  give 
battle  for  supremacy.  When  one  of  the  South- 
ern communities  desires  to  rid  itself  of  a  negro 
postmistress,  it  takes  small  counsel  either  of 
Washington  or  of  the  statutes  in  compelling 

126 


ETHICS   OF  THE  .PRODUCERS 

her  to  leave.  And  whenever,  in  this  broad 
land,  two  railroad  companies  determine  to 
occupy  the  same  right  of  way,  or  one  deter- 
mines to  cross  the  line  of  another,  willy-nilly, 
there  is  usually  a  resort  to  the  use  of  lawless 
force. 

There  are  then  uprisings  of  an  entire  com- 
munity to  chronicle.  The  coal  strike  of  1902 
revealed  a  number  of  instances  of  how  quickly 
a  people's  reverence  for  law  becomes  exhausted 
when  the  pinch  comes  home  to  it.  The  promi- 
nent citizens  of  Arcola,  111.,  including  town 
officials,  lawyers,  ministers,  and  other  conven- 
tional upholders  of  law  and  order,  saw  no  wrong 
in  holding  up  a  coal  train  and  seizing  its  con- 
tents; and  a  number  of  other  communities 
gayly  but  determinedly  followed  their  example. 
Within  the  last  year  three  cities  in  the  Middle 
West  (one  each  in  Indiana,  Ohio,  and  Illinois) 
have  been  given  over  to  mob  violence  and  a 
defiance  of  the  law ;  while  in  the  state  of  Colo- 
rado mobs  of  well-to-do  citizens  have  forcibly 
removed  public  officials  from  office,  assaulted, 
imprisoned,  and  deported  innocent  men,  de- 
stroyed their  possessions,  and  prevented  the 
supplying  of  food  to  hungry  women  and 
children. 

Submissiveness  to  the  law  is  a- variable  atti- 
127 


MASS  .AND   CLASS 

tude,  depending  largely  on  the  rigor  with  which 
the  law  bears  upon  a  people,  its  interests  and 
its  desires.  The  potentialities  for  law-breaking 
that  reside  in  a  race,  a  community,  an  individ- 
ual, may  be  safely  set  down  as  infinite.  Most 
men  are  perhaps  inclined  to  some  degree  of 
lawlessness,  when  it  suits  their  desires  or  their 
interests ;  and  even  with  the  docile  it  is  required 
only  that  the  provocation  be  extreme,  and  that 
all  or  most  extenuating  circumstances  be  absent. 
The  meekest  of  men  may  be  incited  to  fisticuffs, 
and  the  gentlest  of  women,  if  our  newspapers 
are  to  be  believed,  have  been  known  to  cowhide 
refractory  men  and  to  pluck  handfuls  of  hair 
from  their  rivals'  locks. 

That  acts  of  lawlessness,  both  individual  and 
collective,  on  the  part  of  union  men  have  oc- 
curred, need  not  be  denied.  The  evidence, 
unfortunately,  is  clear.  The  degree  of  this 
lawlessness  is,  however,  almost  invariably  ex- 
aggerated in  the  press.  The  press  has  two 
important  functions  —  to  provide  interesting 
reading  and  to  support  the  employing  class; 
and  both  of  these  functions  are  served  by  dilat- 
ing upon  the  so-called  "  outrages "  of  strikers. 
Most  of  the  charges  regarding  violence  in  the 
coal  district  in  1902  were  proved  false  on  the 
witness  stand ;  and  Mr.  Mitchell's  challenge  to 

128 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

the  operators  to  prove  the  statements  made  by 
them  to  President  Roosevelt  regarding  lawless- 
ness was  never  accepted.  Much  has  been  said 
of  the  turbulence  of  the  miners  in  the  Coeur 
d'Alene  district  of  Idaho  five  years  ago;  but 
rarely  has  anything  been  heard  of  the  brutal- 
ity and  lawlessness  of  the  United  States 
army  —  their  assaults  on  unarmed  and  often 
innocent  men,  their  transformation  of  a  deten- 
tion camp  into  a  modern  Andersonville,  their 
open  avowal  of  a  determination  to  break  up 
the  miners'  union.  The  railway  strike  of  1894 
occasioned  great  turbulence  in  Chicago.  Some 
of  this  was  unquestionably  due  to  strikers,  but 
the  evidence  would  seem  to  be  conclusive  that 
in  some  part  it  was  due  to  an  unruly  element 
of  the  population,  always  ready  for  a  riot,  and 
that  much  of  it  was  due  to  the  so-called  United 
States  marshals  in  the  employ  of  the  railroad 
companies.  The  so-called  riot  at  Hazelton, 
Pa.,  a  few  years  ago,  resolved  itself,  under 
investigation,  into  a  causeless  and  deliberate 
shooting  down  of  unarmed  men  by  a  sheriff's 
guard.  A  conventional  instance  of  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  cause  of  striking  workmen 
is  maliciously  misrepresented  has  recently 
been  given  by  Miss  Teller,  in  The  Ethical 
Record:  — 

K  129 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"In  an  early  February  issue  of  Collier's  Weekly 
there  appeared  an  unsigned  article  dealing  particu- 
larly with  the  strike  in  Telluride,  Col.  If  the  story 
had  been  intended  for  fiction  of  the  dime  novel 
sort,  it  could  not  .have  been  better  written.  For  in- 
stance, the  writer  said  that  in  the  last  three  years 
there  had  been  eighty-five  murders  in  Telluride,  and 
that  men  were  afraid  to  go  out  after  dark.  While 
in  Telluride  a  few  weeks  before  this,  I  had  cross- 
examined  the  city  attorney,  the  sheriff,  and  the  back 
files  of  the  leading  paper,  and  proved  to  my  satisfac- 
tion that  in  spite  of  the  town  being  a  typical  Western 
mining-camp,  there  had  been  but  three  murders  in 
three  years,  and  not  one  of  them  could  be  traced 
to  union  members  or  union  influence."1 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  libel  will  be 
retracted  by  its  author.  It  is  the  kind  of  libel 
which  is  written,  published,  and  circulated  for 
the  purpose  of  influencing  public  opinion  against 
striking  workmen.  The  purpose  gained,  there 
is  nothing  more  to  be  done,  unless  to  provide 
fresh  libels ;  a  retraction  would  be  inconsistent 
with  trading-class  morality. 

The  grosser  forms  of  lawlessness  into  which 
union  men  are  sometimes  led  are  the  result  of 
specific  provocation  under  intolerable  condi- 
tions. The  first  thing  to  be  considered  is  this : 
that  the  fundamental  fact  of  life  is  the  bread- 

1  Charlotte  Teller,  The  Ethical  Record,  July,  1904. 
130 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

and-butter  interest.  It  is  the  securing  of  the 
necessary  basis  of  existence  that  must  form,  as 
things  are  now  managed,  the  vital  and  domi- 
nant consideration  of  nine-tenths  of  the  nation's 
denizens.  All  over  the  nation  the  struggle  for 
a  livelihood  continues,  without  cessation,  with- 
out respite ;  and  it  is  everywhere  attended  with 
violations  of  law,  ^whether  that  lawlessness  be 
the  violence  of  a  dispossessed  workman  or  the 
thousand  and  one  evasions  and  infractions 
which  attend  the  management  of  industry  and 
commerce.  The  struggle  between  masters  and 
men,  in  Mr.  Lloyd's  phrase,  is  a  sphere  of  con- 
flict which  society  has  so  far  failed  to  organize ; 
and  until  it  is  organized,  the  present  character 
of  the  conflict  must  continue. 

But  there  is  a  clear  distinction  between  the 
violations  of  law  on  the  part  of  workmen  and 
those  on  the  part  of  employers.  The  employ- 
er's lawlessness  is  provoked  by  no  personal 
wrong,  or  prompted  by  no  stirring  of  an  instinct 
of  group  fellowship.  It  is  due  to  an  individual 
prompting  to  exploit  his  advantage  to  the  ut- 
most; to  get  more  out  of  his  monopoly  or 
privilege  than  the  law  allows,  to  increase  the 
taxing  power  he  holds  over  his  fellow-beings. 
His  lawlessness  is  a  blow  at  society  as  a  whole, 
and  at  institutions  of  which  he  and  his  fellows 

131 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

are  the  moulders;  and  professed  upholders. 
It  is  an  injury  to  the  members  of  his  own 
class,  as  well  as  to  those  of  all  other  classes. 
It  has  no  justification  in  either  class  or  social 
ethics,  but  is  brigandage  pure  and  simple. 

The  striking  workman  is  the  representative 
of  another  creed  and  another  spirit.  First,  as 
to  his  status:  He  has  no  tools  of  his  own. 
The  development  of  industry  has  transformed 
the  tool  into  a  powerful  machine,  permanently 
stationed  in  mill  and  factory.  Unpossessed 
with  tools,  the  workman  must  go  to  the  owner 
of  the  machine  and  apply  for  the  chance  to  use 
his  muscle-power  and  skill.  He  is  employed, 
and  he  sets  to  work  to  produce  commodities 
for  general  sale.  He  does  not  receive  in  wages 
the  value  of  what  he  produces.  Much  must  be 
taken  out  for  the  food  and  clothing,  the  travel, 
the  education,  and  the  entertainment  of  the 
owner  and  the  manager,  the  capitalist  who 
supplies  the  money,  the  landlord  who  owns 
the  land,  a  horde  of  intermediaries,  including 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  needless  township, 
city,  state,  and  government  officials,  and  the 
wives,  sons,  and  daughters  of  all  of  them.  Out 
of  every  commodity  that  he  produces,  a  fraction 
of  value  must  be  taken  for  each  of  those  who 
live  idly,  or  at  least  uselessly,  upon  his  labor, 

132 


ETHICS   OF   THE   PRODUCERS 

Each  day  of  his  toil  has  taken  something  of 
his  body  and  brain  and  transferred  it  to  the 
commodities  which  are  produced  and  to  the 
plant  of  which  he  is  a  part.  Gradually  he  es- 
tablishes a  relationship  with  the  plant,  which, 
in  social  justice,  is  not  terminable  at  the  whim 
or  caprice  of  some  petty  exploiter,  but  a  rela- 
tionship bound  up,  in  the  life  of  the  plant  itself. 
He  has  invested,  though  compulsorily,  his  sur- 
plus in  the  mechanism  of  the  establishment, 
just  as  the  provider  of  the  original  capital  has 
done.  The  value  of  his  labor,  over  and  above 
what  he  receives  in  wages  and  his  share  of  the 
operating  and  supervisional  expenses,  has  been 
withheld  from  him  and  incorporated  into  the 
plant,  or  expended  for  the  uses  of  the  persons 
who  live  off  it,  and  constitutes  a  holding  to 
which  his  title  is  morally  unassailable. 

This  workman  recognizes  a  community  of 
interest  with  his  fellows,  and  of  all  men  who 
toil  for  the  profit  of  others.  He  joins  them  in 
their  union,  he  makes  such  sacrifices  for  the 
common  good  as  are  mutually  agreed  upon  to 
be  necessary,  and  he  joins  in  the  demands  made 
upon  his  employer  for  more  equitable  condi- 
tions. It  is  a  collective  and  not  an  individual 
cause  for  which  he  strives,  for  he  looks  upon 
himself  as  a  mere  unit  in  a  great  fellowship. 

133 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

Failing  in  this  demand  upon  his  employer,  or 
in  a  subsequent  demand  for  an  arbitration  of 
the  issues,  he  joins  with  his  fellows  in  with- 
drawing from  work  until  the  employer  yields. 

Then  enters  President  Eliot's  hero,  the 
"scab."  The  term  is  opprobrious,  and  might 
well  be  supplanted  by  another.  For  it  should 
be  remembered  that  the  "  scab,"  though  his 
work  and  influence  are  anti-social  and  degrad- 
ing, is  as  much  to  be  pitied  as  condemned. 
He  is  as  inevitable  a  part  of  the  capitalist  sys- 
tem of  industry  as  are  the  "  shyster  "  attorney, 
the  "quack"  physician,  and  the  "green-goods" 
operator,  and  far  more  necessary  than  any  of 
these.  Capitalist  industry  could  not  endure 
without  masses  of  unemployed  men  to  exert 
an  actual  or  potential  threat  on  the  wage-rate ; 
and  it  is  from  these  hordes  of  more  or  less 
constantly  unemployed  men  that  the  "  scab  "  is 
recruited.  He  is  an  agent,  rather  than  a  prin- 
cipal. By  what  quality  or  by  what  blend  of 
qualities  he  becomes  a  hero  must  be  left  for 
the  exposition  of  President  Eliot.  Another 
educator,  Professor  Gunton,  the  proprietor  of 
an  establishment  not  so  variously  or  conspicu- 
ously endowed  as  is  Harvard  University,  has 
taken  the  opposite  extreme,  and  has  character- 
ized the  "  scab "  in  terms  of  violent  denuncia- 

134 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

tion.  Much  of  what  he  says  is  true,  but  though 
he  recognizes  the  fact  that  the  "  scab  "  serves  as 
a  tool  of  the  individual  capitalist,  he  fails  alto- 
gether to  recognize  the  necessary  and  inevita- 
ble function  that  he  serves  under  the  capitalist 
system  of  industry.  Of  that  system  he  is  an 
essential  condition. 

"  In  probably  ninety  per  cent  of  the  cases  he  is 
really  a  loose,  irregular,  disreputable,  quasi-tramp 
laborer.  He  is  the  kind  that  seldom  works  regularly, 
and  is  almost  never  a  good  workman.  ...  In  the 
main  there  is  really  no  heroism  in  the  'scab.'  And 
he  doesn't  come  as  a  hero.  He  seldom  comes  because 
he  wants  to  work.  He  usually  comes  because  there 
are  exceptional  inducements  offered  and  because  he 
is  made  an  object  of  considerable  attention.  .  .  . 
He  not  only  does  not  lessen  the  total  of  the  un- 
employed, but  he  defeats  the  effort  of  the  other 
man  to  improve  the  condition  of  his  whole  class. 
He  makes  the  job  worse  for  himself,  for  everybody 
else,  and  for  those  that  come  after  him.  Is  he  a 
benefactor  ?  To  the  extent  that  he  succeeds  he  pre- 
vents improvement.  His  only  contribution  is  to  the 
forces  that  make  it  impossible  for  the  laborers  in  that 
group  to  get  better  economic  or  social  conditions,  and 
he  is  used  specifically  for  that  purpose.  Under  no 
other  conditions  would  he  have  been  employed.  He 
is  employed  only  as  an  instrument  for  preventing  that 
improvement.  .  .  .  From  the  viewpoint  of  the  prog- 
ress of  society  the  'scab'  is  an  injury.  He  lacks 

135 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

every  element  that  goes  to  make  up  a  hero;  his 
whole  attitude  is  that  of  the  sneak  and  the  camp- 
follower  ;  of  the  man  who  robs  the  corpses  on  the 
battle-field,  or  attends  a  fire  for  the  sake  of  the  pick- 
ings. He  contributes  no  element,  either  of  personal 
honor,  public  spirit,  or  good  workmanship,  and  adds 
nothing  to  the  force  which  makes  for  the  social  better- 
ment of  anybody.  There  is  every  reason  why  honest, 
industrious  laborers,  whether  members  of  unions  or 
not,  should  despise  the  '  scab '  and  refuse  to  associ- 
ate with  him.  It  is  an  ethical  impulse  to  ostracize 
him."  i 

This  is  the  being  who  takes  the  place  of  the 
striker.  Victim  that  he  is,  he  is  yet  held  to  be 
a  free-will  actor  in  the  treason  which  he  com- 
mits to  the  cause  of  the  workers.  He  violates 
the  sense  of  class  honor  resident  in  most  work- 
men, unorganized  as  well  as  organized — a  sense 
which  our  perverted  judgments  hold  honorable 
and  beautiful  in  companions-at-arms  or  knights 
errant,  but  base  and  plebeian  in  toilers ;  and  it 
is  to  this  treason  more  than  to  the  personal 
wrong  endured,  that  the  occasional  violence  of 
the  striker  is  due.  Absurd  as  it  may  appear  to 
the  trader  and  retainer  conscience,  the  moving 
impulse  of  the  striker's  violence  against  the 
"  scab  "  is  the  sense  of  outrage  to  his  ethic  of 

1  George  Gunton,  Gunton's  Magazine,  January,  1903. 

136 


ETHICS   OF  THE   PRODUCERS 

group  fellowship.  The  striker  sees  himself 
supplanted  in  his  job,  and  his  dependent  ones 
reduced  to  penury;  but  he  sees  this  also  in 
other  times,  when  there  are  no  strikes,  when 
industry  is  at  peace,  and  it  does  not  prompt 
him  to  violence.  It  is  only,  in  the  main,  when 
he  is  made  to  suffer  through  the  treason  of  his 
fellows,  that  he  falls  to  lawless  acts.  Between 
the  magnate  who  breaks  law  for  an  added 
profit,  against  the  interests  of  his  fellows, 
against  the  interests  of  men  of  other  classes, 
against  the  interests  of  all  society,  and  the 
workman  who  violates  law  out  of  the  blind 
prompting  of  an  instinct  of  class  honor, 
stretches  a  chasm  too  wide  to  be  bridged. 
The  workman  is  nevertheless  not  to  be  ex- 
cused, it  will  be  said ;  but  it  must  also  be  said 
that  it  is  due  him  that  he  be  rightly  under- 
stood, and  that  his  conduct  be  not  assailed  by 
men  who  are  the  passive  apologists  of  lawlessness 
far  more  inimical  to  the  state.  The  teachers 
and  preachers  may  find  it  pleasant  to  be  fed  on 
stalled  ox  and  clothed  in  fine  linen  by  reason 
of  their  denouncing  one  kind  of  lawlessness 
and  condoning  another;  but  the  pleasure  is 
one  which  can  only  be  purchased  at  an  ulti- 
mate price  too  dear  to  pay.  In  the  transformed 
society  of  the  future,  wherein  the  distinctive 

137 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

class  ethics  of  the  producers,  purged  and  re- 
fined of  their  grosser  phases  due  to  individual- 
ist competition,  shall  have  become  the  accepted 
ethics  of  all  society,  the  hortatory  retainers  of 
to-day  will  be  remembered,  if  at  all,  only  with 
contempt. 


133 


CHAPTER  VI 

ETHICS  OF  THE  TRADERS 

IT  is  the  ethics  of  the  traders  which  most 
concern  us,  since  with  the  world  as  it  is,  the 

(traders   are  in   the  saddle^   Their  views   are( 
dominant,  and  prevail  in  church  and  school,  at  \ 
the  bar  and  on  the  bench,  and  form  the  basis   '. 
of  the  general  social  morality  of  to-day.  V  What-  i 
ever     ethical    impulses    may    arise,    whatever 
ethical  standards    may  develop,  in  the    subor- 
dinate classes,  they  are    nevertheless  distorted 
or  checked  by  the  ethical  code  imposed  from 
above.     When  the  strike-breaker  justifies  his 
own  conduct,  he  does  it  not  in  conformity  with 
the  natural  ethics  of  his  class,  but  in  conform- 
ity with  the  ethics  of  the  dominant  class.     He 
is  generally  a  victim  of    necessity,  and   must 
take  work  at  whatever  cost  to  his  class  con- 
science  and   his  class   honor.      But   his   con- 
science, if  he  is  a  normal  being,  reproves  him ; 
and  it  is  only  by  the  flattering  unction  of  an 
ethic  borrowed  from  an  antagonistic  class  that 

139 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

it  can  be  soothed.  In  a  like  position  is  the 
social  servant  who  is  led  to  perform  the  service 
of  a  trading-class  retainer.  His  natural  in- 
stincts, consonant  with  the  exercise  of  his 
function,  would  prompt  him  toward  an  ethic 
seeking  to  harmonize  the  conflicting  interests 
of  various  classes ;  and  it  is  only  by  judging 
his  own  conduct  by  the  test  of  a  trading-class 
ethic  that  he  can  justify  it.  Here,  as  in  all 
other  places,  the  influence  of  ideals  in  moulding 
beliefs  and  institutions,  and  in  prompting  ac- 
tions toward  a  social  end,  is  counter-checked 
or  subordinated  by  the  pressure  of  the  material 
interests  of  the  dominant  class. 


The  supreme  ethic  of  the  trading  class  is 
that  of  contract.  It  is  an  ethic  which  consists 
of  two  parts  —  a  conviction  of  the  right  to  make 
any  bargain  which  the  other  party  can  be  in- 
duced to  agree  to,  and  a  conviction  of  the  duty 
of  keeping  the  agreement  when  made.  All  of 
our  legal  institutions  reflect  and  uphold  this 
ethic ;  an  army  of  officials ;  a  great  number  of 
courts,  swarmed  about  by  a  multitude  of  law- 
yers; no  less  than  forty-nine  different  groups 
of  legislators,  including  those  of  the  territories 

140 


OF 

UNIVERSITY 
ETHICS   OF   THE 


and  of  the  national  capital,  and  a  vast  mass  of 
legal  tradition  and  judicial  decision.  It  is  an 
ethic  which  is  held  valid  despite  the  fraud  and 
deception  which  are  practised  throughout  the 
processes  of  trade  ;  for  as  a  general  thing,  only 
the  grosser  and  more  patent  forms  of  fraud, 
against  which  specific  laws  have  been  aimed, 
justify,  to  the  trader  mind,  the  breaking  of  an 
agreement.  The  court  calendars  are  perpetu- 
ally crowded,  it  is  true,  with  cases  of  trader  vs. 
trader,  involving  fraud  in  the  making  or  break- 
ing of  contracts.  But  these,  for  the  most  part, 
represent  only  the  more  glaring  violations.  For 
the  multitudinous  transactions  of  the  ordinary 
kind  in  which  misrepresentation  is  employed, 
there  is  no  appeal  ;  and  the  trader  code  justifies 
the  means  by  the  end.  Indeed,  it  not  infre- 
quently happens  that  the  trader  who  complains 
of  a  bad  bargain  is  looked  upon  by  his  fellows 
with  much  the  same  contempt  that  is  visited 
upon  the  "  squealer  "  of  a  "  brace  "  faro  game 
or  the  "  come-back  "  of  a  "  green-goods  "  opera- 
tion. The  standards  are  much  the  same,  East 
and  West,  North  and  South,  throughout  the 
range  of  merchandizing.  But  they  are  more 
strictly  held  to,  with  a  less  frequent  resort 
to  "  squealing,"  in  the  freer  and  less  regulated 
sorts  of  merchandizing  such  as  horse-trading, 

141 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

mine-selling,  and  other  bartering  transactions 
than  in  the  better  regulated  but  more  sordid 
merchandizing  of  the  great  trading  marts. 
Mr.  Jack  London,  the  novelist,  gives  an  amus- 
ing instance  of  the  wonderment  of  two  vet- 
eran prospectors  over  the  conduct  of  a  poor 
Swede  upon  whom  they  had  unloaded  a  sup- 
posedly worthless  mine :  — 

"  Tears  were  in  his  eyes  and  throat.  They  ran 
down  his  cheeks  as  he  knelt  before  them  and  pleaded 
and  implored.  But  Bill  and  Kink  did  not  laugh. 
They  might  have  been  harder-hearted. 

" '  First  time  I  ever  hear  a  man  squeal  over  a 
minin'  deal,'  Bill  said.  '  An'  I  make  free  to  say  'tis 
too  onusual  for  me  to  savvy.' 

"  '  Same  here,'  Kink  Mitchell  remarked.  *  Minin' 
deals  is  like  horse-tradin'. 

"  They  were  honest  in  their  wonderment.  They 
could  not  conceive  of  themselves  raising  a  wail  over 
a  business  transaction,  so  they  could  not  understand 
it  in  another  man."1 

The  ethic  of  contract  is  to-day  more  devoutly, 
more  fiercely  held  among  the  trading  class  than 
ever  before.  The  increase  of  deception  is  nec- 
essarily attended  by  an  increasing  faith  in  the 
right  of  the  fabricator  and  seller  to  misrepre- 
sent—  at  least  up  to  a  certain  point  —  and  an 

1  Jack  London,  The  Faith  of  Men,  p.  130. 
142 


ETHICS   OF   THE   TRADERS 

increasing  reliance  upon  the  obligation  of  the 
buyer  to  fulfil  his  agreement. 

Trading-class    morality   actually   recognizes  / 
an  ethic  of  deception.     It  is  what  might  be/ 
called  a  silent  ethic,  for  it  is  not,  as  a  rule,! 
openly  or  flauntingly  announced.      But   it   is 
none   the   less  generally   held,  and   the   over- 
whelming mass  of  trading-class  practices  are  in 
accord  with  it.     "  I  must  live,"  is  its  inner  ex- 
pression ;  and  its  outer  expression,  which  has 
long  been  embodied  in  law,  is  "caveat  emptor" 
"  let  the  buyer  beware."     An  excellent  illustra- 
tion of  the  trading-class  view  of  it  is  revealed 
in  a  letter  published  some  time  ago  in  that 
classic    organ   of    capitalist    ethics,    The  New 
York  Times:  — 

"  To  THE  EDITOR  OF  The  New   York  Times  : 

"  While  conversing  with  a  friend  some  evenings 
ago,  a  chance  remark  that  there  was  a  great  amount 
of  fraud  perpetrated  nowadays,  which  in  the  eyes  of 
the  perpetrators  was  quite  justifiable,  called  forth  the 
following  remarkable  statement  from  my  friend  : 
'Why,  in  my  business  competition  makes  it  impos- 
sible for  a  single  firm  to  exist  if  it  did  not  adulterate 
its  goods.' 

"  For  obvious  reasons  I  shall  not  mention  my 
friend's  business,  but  the  existing  conditions  which 
he  explained  were  a  revelation  to  me,  and  though  at 
first  his  statement  was  rather  appalling,  his  subse- 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

quent  explanation  has  to  my  mind  somewhat  justified 
his  course. 

"  His  argument  in  substance  was  that  a  merchant 
who  discovers  that  all  his  competitors  are  able  to 
undersell  him  because  they  adulterate  their  goods  is 
justified  in  following  their  example  in  self-defence,  if 
for  no  other  reason.  Furthermore,  a  man  who  has 
the  means  to  retire  when  these  practices  of  his  com- 
petitors become  intolerable  owes  a  certain  obligation 
to  his  employees,  many  of  whom,  perhaps,  have  grown 
old  in  the  concern,  and  are  unfit  to  start  business  life 
afresh.  To  sell  out  would  be  simply  shifting  the  re- 
sponsibility to  other  shoulders. 

"Always  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  adultera- 
tion practised  is  not  injurious  and  is  practically  proof 
from  detection,  is  a  man  censurable  who  sells  an 
adulterated  article  as  '  absolutely  pure,'  when  the 
conditions  described  are  taken  into  consideration? 

"E.  B.  G."1 

Not  often  is  this  ethic  of  deception  so  ingenu- 
ously and  publicly  proclaimed.  But  though  it 
is  here  the  voice  of  only  a  single  individual, 
it  is,  if  the  overwhelming  mass  of  commercial 
practices  are  to  be  held  to  represent  the  trad- 
ing-class mind,  an  almost  universally  held  ethic 
among  traders.  What  delightful  naivete  is  re- 
vealed in  that  qualifying  clause,  "  always  taking 
it  for  granted  that  the  adulteration  practised  is 

1  New  York  Times,  April  16,  1904. 
144 


ETHICS   OF   THE   TRADERS 

not  injurious  and  is  practically  proof  from  detec- 
tion "  /  The  primitive  savage's  concept  of  evil, 
not  as  an  injurious  deed,  but  as  the  getting 
caught  at  it,  would  seem  to  be  a  lusty  survival 
in  the  trading-class  morality  of  to-day. 

"  Deception,"  writes  Professor  Ward  in  his 
Pure  Sociology, 

"may  almost  be  called  the  foundation  of  business.^ 
A  It  is  true  that  if  all  business  men  would  altogeth< 
discard  it  matters  would  probably  be  far  better  eve 
for  them  than  they  are,  but  taking  the  human 
character  as  it  is,  it  is  frankly  avowed  by  business 
men  themselves  that  no  business  could  succeed  for 
a  single  year  if  it  were  to  attempt  singlehanded  and 
alone  to  adopt  such  an  innovation.  The  particular 
form  of  deception  characteristic  of  business  is  called 
shrewdness,  and  is  universally  considered  proper  and 
upright.  There  is  a  sort  of  code  that  fixes  the 
limit  beyond  which  this  form  of  deception  must  not 
be  carried,  and  those  who  exceed  that  limit  are  looked 
upon  somewhat  as  is  a  pugilist  who  *  hits  below  the 
belt.'  But  within  those  limits  every  one  expects  every 
other  to  suggest  the  false  and  suppress  the  true." J 

To  what  degree  this  deception  is  carried,  and 
how  it  comes  to  its  flower  and  fruitage  in  an 
unparalleled  reign  of  fraud  and  graft,  must  be 
passed  for  the  present,  to  be  considered  at  some 
length  in  the  two  following  chapters. 

1  Ward,  p.  487. 

L  H5 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

Though  the  supreme  ethic  of  the  trading 
class  is  that  of  contract,  including  its  auxiliary, 
that  of  deception,  there  are  other  class  convic- 
tions quite  as  firmly  held.  One  of  these  not  to 
be  omitted  from  mention  is  the  ethic  of  the 
sacredness  of  private  possessions.  What  the 
individual  has  gained  possession  of,  that  is  his 
against  all  the  world ;  and  they  that  would  seek 
to  levy  upon  it  for  even  the  most  useful  social 
purposes  are  usually  regarded  as  robbers.  Thus 
it  comes  that  taxation  and  customs  duties, 
except  when  the  latter  become,  as  protective 
tariffs,  a  means  of  personal  enrichment,  are  not 
infrequently  classed  by  the  traders  as  legalized 
theft.  Especially  are  the  inheritance  and  in- 
come taxes  and  the  duties  on  personal  belong- 
ings provocatives  of  trading-class  indignation 
and  resentment.  That  nine-tenths  of  all  gov- 
ernmental activity  is  exercised  in  protecting 
the  traders  and  securing  them  in  their  posses- 
sions is  a  fact  patent  to  most,  even  to  the 
traders  themselves;  and  that  government  is 
therefore  justified  in  levying  upon  such  pos- 
sessions would  seem  to  be  axiomatic.  But  no 
consideration  of  logical  right  can  wholly  sup- 
plant the  outraged  ethic  of  the  sacredness  of 
private  possessions  in  the  trading-class  mind. 

A  different  kind  of  ethic,  a  projected  ethic, 
146 


ETHICS   OF  THE   TRADERS 

as  it  were, —  an  ethic  not  for  the  gufdance  and 
governance  of  themselves,  but  for  the  direction 
of  men  of  another  class,  —  which  is  fiercely  held 
by  the  traders,  is  the  ethic  of  "free"  labor.  It 
has  developed  quite  as  naturally  as  have  the 
other  ethical  standards  of  this  class,  out  of  the 
pressure  of  economic  needs.  In  feudal  times 
the  dominant  class  held  to  the  ethic  of  bound 
labor.  The  interests  of  the  barons  made  such 
a  status  a  necessity,  and  naturally  these  barons 
arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  it  was  best  for 
religion  and  morality,  for  mankind,  for  the 
state,  and  particularly  for  the  villeins  them- 
selves ;  and  the  priestly  and  lay  retainers  (with 
such  exceptions  as  Wiclifs  "russet  priests" 
and  some  others)  coincided  in  the  view.  But 
the  transformation  to  capitalism,  with  its  fierce 
competition,  its  changing  technic  of  production, 
and  its  fluctuating  markets,  necessitated  a 
greater  mobility  for  labor.  Capitalism  cannot 
undertake  the  maintenance  of  its  workers,  but 
must  have  them  in  great  masses,  ready  to  be 
hired  at  will  and  subject  to  instant  discharge. 
Trade-unions,  therefore,  in  regulating,  or  at- 
tempting to  regulate,  this  supply  of  labor  and 
the  terms  and  conditions  under  which  it  is  em- 
ployed, are  a  palpable  interference  with  the 
necessities  of  capitalism.  Helice  arise  the  cries 

147 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

for  "free"  labor  —  labor  that  is  not  associated, 
but  is  ready  at  all  times  to  serve  on  the  terms 
laid  down  for  it  —  and  for  the  open  shop,  where 
the  working  conditions  are  those  only  which 
the  individual  master  is  willing  to  give. 

An  ethic,  this  standard  has  been  called ;  but 
it  is  doubtful  if  it  reaches  the  worth  and  stand- 
ing of  an  ethic  by  mere  trading-class  cerebra- 
tion alone.  It  is  of  a  different  nature  from  the 
other  ethical  standards,  peculiar  to  themselves, 
which  the  members  of  a  class  develop  out  of 
the  exercise  of  their  particular  functions.  It  is, 
on  the  contrary,  a  standard  imposed  upon  other 
men  —  a  demand  upon  them  for  something  the 
traders  need  and  want,  purely  material  and 
sordid  in  its  nature,  and  doubtless  at  first  un- 
sanctified  in  the  trader  mind  by  any  nimbus  of 
moral  sentiment.  Not  until  it  passes  through 
the  prism  of  the  retainer  mind  is  it  invested 
with  a  halo  of  righteousness;  not  until  then 
does  it  acquire  a  religious  validity,  a  sanction 
in  accord  with  the  laws  of  Nature  and  of 
Nature's  God.  Thus  hallowed  by  the  retain- 
ers, it  is  reabsorbed  into  trading-class  morality, 
and  takes  equal  standing  with  its  other  ethical 
standards. 

In  the  light  of  this  ethic,  as  it  is  now  being 
industriously  expounded  by  our  comfortable 

148 


ETHICS   OF   THE   TRADERS 

factory  lords  and  their  retainers,  the  common 
phenomena  of  the  industrial  life  take  on  new 
and  wondrous  forms.  "  Free  "  labor — that  is, 
labor  so  servile  and  helpless  that  it  must  needs 
accept  employment  at  any  wage  and  under  any 
conditions  —  becomes  glorious,  patriotic,  heroic, 
what  you  will.  Union  labor,  which  seeks  to 
have  some  voice  in  determining  the  wages  and 
conditions  under  which  it  will  employ  itself, 
becomes  cowardly  and  supine,  the  victim  of 
tyrannical  walking  delegates  or  corrupt  politi- 
cal wire-pullers.  The  attempt  to  enforce  its 
terms  becomes  the  impudent  assertion  of  a 
right  to  "run  the  employer's  business";  and, 
finally,  the  open  shop,  wherein  the  workman  is 
sooner  or  later  reduced  to  a  mere  tool  of  the 
master,  becomes  an  earthly  paradise,  an  abode 
of  joy  and  hope  and  peace.  Of  such  is  that 
part  of  trading-class  morality  imposed  upon 
other  men,  when  illumined  and  sanctified  by 
the  moral  and  intellectual  retainers. 


II 

It  may  be  interesting  to  look  at  some  of  the 
distinctive  phases  of  trading-class  function  and 
morality  from  the  standpoint  of  the  producing 
classes.  The  producers,  particularly  the  wage- 

149 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

earners,  have  two  prime  grievances  against  the 
traders,  and  against  their  retainers  as  well- 
old  grievances  universally  and  profoundly  felt. 
The  first  of  these  is  the  general  indifference  of 
the  comfortable  classes  to  the  poverty  of  which 
nearly  all  the  wage-earners  are  in  peril,  and  which 
is  the  actual  and  inescapable  lot  of  an  enormous 
number  of  them.  The  extent  and  social  con- 
sequence of  this  poverty  have  been  often  pic- 
tured, perhaps  most  graphically  and  convincingly 
in  two  oft-quoted  and  well-known  passages,  one 
by  the  late  Professer  Huxley  and  the  other  by 
Mr.  Frederic  Harrison.  They  cannot  be  too 
often  reiterated.  It  is  incumbent  to  return 
over  and  over  again  to  these  forcible  and  tell- 
ing descriptions  for  an  adequate  understanding 
of  the  basic  condition  of  industrial  society 
under  private  capitalism.  In  Professor  Hux- 
ley's words :  — 

"  Any  one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  state  of  the 
population  of  all  great  industrial  centres,  whether  in 
this  or  other  countries,  is  aware  that  amidst  a  large 
and  increasing  body  of  that  population  there  reigns 
supreme  .  .  .  that  condition  which  the  French  call 
la  mistre,  a  word  for  which  I  do  not  think  there  is 
any  exact  English  equivalent.  It  is  a  condition  in 
which  the  food,  warmth,  and  clothing,  which  are 
necessary  for  the  mere  maintenance  of  the  functions 

150 


ETHICS    OF   THE   TRADERS 

of  the  body  in  their  normal  state,  cannot  be  obtained ; 
in  which  men,  women,  and  children  are  forced  to 
crowd  into  dens  wherein  decency  is  abolished,  and 
the  most  ordinary  conditions  of  healthful  existence 
are  impossible  of  attainment ;  in  which  the  pleasures 
within  reach  are  reduced  to  brutality  and  drunken- 
ness; in  which  the  pains  accumulate  at  compound 
interest  in  the  shape  of  starvation,  disease,  stunted 
development,  and  moral  degradation ;  in  which  the 
prospect  of  even  steady  and  honest  industry  is  a 
life  of  unsuccessful  battling  with  hunger,  rounded 
by  a  pauper's  grave."1 

Mr.  Harrison's  summary,  published  two  years 
earlier,  furnishes  a  picture  almost  identical :  — 

"  To  me,  at  least,  it  would  be  enough  to  condemn 
modern  society  as  hardly  an  advance  on  slavery  or 
serfdom,  if  the  permanent  condition  of  industry  were 
to  be  that  which  we  behold,  that  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  actual  producers  of  wealth  have  no  home  that 
they  can  call  their  own  beyond  the  end  of  the  week  ; 
have  no  bit  of  soil,  or  so  much  as  a  room  that  belongs 
to  them ;  have  nothing  of  value  of  any  kind  except  as 
much  old  furniture  as  will  go  in  a  cart ;  have  the 
precarious  chance  of  weekly  wages  which  barely 
suffice  to  keep  them  in  health;  are  housed  for  the 
most  part  in  places  that  no  man  thinks  fit  for  his 
horse ;  are  separated  by  so  narrow  a  margin  from 
destitution  that  a  month  of  bad  trade,  sickness,  or 

1  T.  H.  Huxley,  Nineteenth  Century,  February,  1888. 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

unexpected  loss  brings  them  face  to  face  with  hunger 
and  pauperism.  .  .  .  This  is  the  normal  state  of 
the  average  workman  in  town  or  country." a 

It  is  of  the  European  cities  (in  Mr.  Harri- 
son's declaration,  of  the  country  districts  as 
well)  that  these  words  are  written;  but  they 
apply  also,  though  with  a  somewhat  lesser 
degree  of  exactness,  to  the  greater  cities  in 
America.  Day  after  day,  year  after  year,  this 
general  condition  endures  —  a  condition  some- 
what eased  in  times  of  prosperity,  but  made 
unspeakably  worse  in  times  of  depression.  The 
producers  see  the  comfortable  classes  in  the 
serene  enjoyment  of  all  the  luxuries  that  money 
will  buy,  and  they  see  that  this  enjoyment  is  but 
slightly  affected,  if  at  all,  by  the  presence  of  the 
suffering  poor.  While  multitudes  hunger  and 
sicken  in  the  slums,  the  luxurious  places  of 
entertainment  and  amusement  overflow,  and  the 
intermittent  cry  of  the  stricken  is  borne  down 
and  hushed  by  bursts  of  revelry.  If  conscience 
or  pity  gives  a  momentary  pain,  it  is  stilled  by 
a  sop  to  charity,  thrown  like  a  coin  to  a  beggar 
as  the  giver's  carriage  whirls  past  to  some  as 
yet  unsated  pleasure.  Luxury  is  the  main  end 
of  most ;  while  those  who  are  too  refined  for 

1  Frederic  Harrison,  Report  of  Industrial  Remuneration  Con- 
ference (1886),  p.  429. 

152 


ETHICS   OF  THE  TRADERS 

sensual  indulgence  devote  themselves  to  "  cul- 
ture," a  pursuit  that  reaches  its  characteristic 
phase  in  a  trained  sensibility  that  can  weep  at 
the  simulated  woes  of  a  Cordelia  or  a  Camille, 
but  can  withstand  unmoved  the  hollow  cheeks 
and  glazed  eyes  of  a  starving  family  in  the  next 
block. 

The  second  *  grievance  of  the  producers  is 
\social  aloofness  —  indifference  to  the  social 
Ifeelings  of  the  producer  as  a  human  being. 
Social  distinctions  follow  differences  of  occupa- 
tion, and  manual  labor  becomes  the  main  test. 
Those  who  do  the  hardest  and  roughest  work 
are,  barring  criminals  and  outcasts,  on  the 
lowest  steps  of  the  social  stairway,  and  those 
who  are  the  furthest  removed  from  manual 
labor  are  at  the  top.  The  paeans  that  are  per- 
petually sung  to  the  dignity,  honesty,  and  worth 
of  manual  labor  by  our  ministers,  teachers,  and 
politicians  are  natural,  and  in  a  way,  sincere 
enough ;  for  it  is  recognized  that  if  there  were 
none  to  do  the  hard  labor  there  would  be  no 
ease  and  comfort  for  the  retainers.  But  for  all 
the  honesty,  dignity,  and  worth  of  his  toil,  the 
manual  laborer  is  commonly  looked  upon  as  a 
socially  inferior  being.  Social  standards  are 
set,  directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  trading  class, 
and  it  thus  naturally  comes  about  that  manual 

153 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

labor  is  a  social  disqualification,  and  the  exploi- 
tation of  labor  a  social  virtue. 

It  is  rare,  even  among  petty  employers,  for 
the  master  to  hold  social  relations  with  any  of 
his  workmen ;  and  as  for  the  larger  employers, 
they  do  not  even  know  their  workmen  by  sight 
No  minister  who  preaches  the  worth  of  hard 
work  to  a  trading-class  congregation  could 
possibly  welcome  to  his  social  circle  a  manual 
laborer ;  and  even  the  ward  politician,  though 
he  must  himself  associate  with  workmen  to  get 
their  votes,  is  compelled  to  draw  distinctions 
against  them  in  his  home.  How  firmly  rooted, 
how  generally  prevalent,  is  this  feeling  regard- 
ing manual  labor  is  well  illustrated  in  the  dif- 
ferent social  standing  of  clerks  and  mechanics. 
The  clerk  is,  in  the  broad  sense,  a  producer,  and 
under  a  juster  system  of  society,  wherein  his 
work  would  be  as  invariably  useful  as  is  that  of 
the  mechanic,  would  be  a  producer  even  in  the 
narrowest  sense.  But  his  work,  though  partly 
manual,  is  looked  upon  as  more  "  genteel "  than 
that  of  the  carpenter  or  the  shoemaker,  and 
thus,  though  his  wages  are  miserable,  his  duties 
generally  servile,  involving  enforced  lying  and 
trickery,  and  his  ethical  and  intellectual  average 
is  low,  yet  his  social  grade  is  everywhere  far 
above  that  of  the  better  paid,  more  highly 

154 


ETHICS   OF   THE   TRADERS 

skilled,  more  intelligent  and  moral  mechanic, 
whose  qualities  have  placed  America  in  the 
forefront  of  industrial  nations. 

It  may  be  asked  if  the  average  type  of  worker, 
more  or  less  conscious  of  an  ethic  of  usefulness, 
and  the  radical  worker,  conscious  of  class  in- 
terests and  antagonisms,  really  want  or  expect 
social  intercourse  with  the  exploiters  and  the 
idlers.  They  may  or  may  not,  according  to 
circumstances,  individual  character,  and  locality. 
In  general,  the  social  feelings  are  warmer,  more 
spontaneous,  less  artificial,  among  workers  than 
among  the  members  of  the  "  upper "  classes. 
To  them  more  than  to  others  is  it  true,  in  the 
words  of  William  Morris,  that  "fellowship  is 
heaven,  and  the  lack  of  fellowship  is  hell."  The 
isolated  trader,  the  isolated  scholar,  may  be 
indifferent  to  intercourse  with  his  kind  ;  but 
the  isolated  workman,  shut  out  from  friendly 
association,  cannot  be  indifferent.  Association 
with  his  kind  is  a  necessity  of  his  being ;  and 
since  his  social  feelings  have  a  less  artificial,  a 
more  universal  basis,  than  that  which  obtains 
among  the  members  of  other  classes,  it  is  not 
unnatural  that  he  should  want  and  seek  associa- 
tion with  other  kinds  as  well.  Locality,  too,-  is 
influential.  In  the  Middle  and  Far  West,  as  a 
general  thing,  the  barriers  against  social  inter- 

155 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

course  are  much  less  formidable  than  in  the 
East,  and  workman  and  capitalist  may  often  be 
acquaintances  and  friends.  "  The  farther  west 
one  goes,"  as  Professor  Ely  expresses  a  well- 
known  fact,  "the  more  democratic  becomes 
society."1  Even  in  those  Western  localities 
where  antagonisms  between  the  classes  are 
conscious  and  strongly  held  (except,  of  course, 
such  localities  as  the  mining  and  smelting 
districts  of  Colorado,  where  abnormal  con- 
ditions prevail),  there  may  be  inter-class  associa- 
tion on  extremely  friendly  terms.  The  units 
of  the  various  classes  may  recognize  one  another 
as  human  beings,  with  inevadable  claims  to 
fellowship,  even  though  they  have  antagonistic 
interests.  In  the  East,  however,  the  long-con- 
tinued separation  of  the  classes  has  brought 
about  differentiations  in  customs  and  standards 
of  living  that  make  inter-class  association 
practically  impossible.  It  can  hardly  be  sup- 
posed that  under  such  circumstances  the  worker 
has  much  desire  for,  or  any  expectation  of,  in- 
tercourse with  his  "  social  betters." 

But  for  the  workers  to  desire  or  expect  social 
intercourse  with  the  upper  classes  is  one  thing ; 
to  resent  the  social  inferiority  in  which  they  are 

1  Richard  T.  Ely,  Studies  in  the  Evolution  of  Industrial 
Society ',  p.  78. 

156 


ETHICS   OF  THE   TRADERS 

held  because  they  do  manual  labor  and  have  no 
money  to  expend  for  display  is  quite  another. 
It  is  not  so  much  the  lack  of  fellowship  that  is 
resented  as  the  assumption  of  superiority.  Men 
may  be,  for  many  causes,  instinctive  or  reasoned, 
disinclined  to  friendly  association  with  certain 
other  men,  and  without  offence.  But  when  the 
causes  of  this  disinclination,  obvious  and  ac- 
knowledged, are  the  artificial  and  sordid  tests 
which  are  almost  universally  applied  by  the 
comfortable  classes,  a  natural  and  enduring  re- 
sentment is  created.  To  be  conscious  of  doing 
the  productive  work  of  the  nation,  to  know 
that  the  greater  part  of  this  product  is  taken  by 
others,  and  that  those  who  take  it,  even  if  igno- 
rant and  bestial,  are  thus  enabled  to  set  them- 
selves apart  as  a  superior  class,  looking  with 
scorn  upon  their  victims,  can  hardly  be  sup- 
posed to  conduce  to  working-class  patience 
with  the  prevailing  order,  or  with  the  social 
and  ethical  standards  which  are  its  natural 
product. 

The  social  feeling  of  a  great  part  of  the  well- 
to-do  classes  toward  the  producers  is  often,  if 
not  generally,  that  of  a  mild  indifference  or  a 
passive  .disdain.  But  in  the  more  cultured 
fraction  of  these  it  frequently  takes  on  the  hue 
of  active  contempt.  Refinement  involuntarily 

157 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

shudders  at  the  rough  garb  and  unconven- 
tional ways  of  the  workers  and  at  the  militant 
assertion  on  their  part  of  a  right  to  a  larger 
share  in  the  product  of  their  toil.  Our  current 
fiction  generally  reflects  this  attitude ;  though 
of  late  a  growing  curiosity  to  hear  about  "  how 
the  other  half  lives"  has  created  an  economic 
demand  for  stories  of  "  low  life,"  and  a  plentiful 
crop  of  such  productions  has  consequently 
appeared.  It  is  notable  that  in  few  or  none  j 
of  these  are  the  blood  and  sinew  of  working- 
class  life  depicted ;  the  theme  is  apparently 
without  artistic  value  to  the  "  cultivated  "  mind.  \ 
What  is  wanted  are  types  of  the  eccentric,  the  j 
abject,  the  miserable,  of  beings  who  "knowj 
their  places,"  who  are  without  a  sense  of  social 
wrong  or  a  determination  to  mend  matters. 
Over  these  the  "  cultured  "  sensibility  can  weep 
or  laugh  —  at  a  distance  —  proud  and  happy  to 
be  possessed  of  such  delicate  sympathy,  while 
it  would  only  be  shocked  or  bored  by  a  depic- 
tion of  the  life  of  the  real  workers. 

It  is  in  the  social  and  political  writings  in- 
tended for  the  "  cultured  "  that  this  active  con- 
tempt is  most  plainly  shown.  Its  most  charac- 
teristic expression  is  perhaps  to  be  found  in 
the  work  of  the  late  Mr.  E.  L.  Godkin.  The 
working  classes,  in  the  view  of  this  representa- 

158 


ETHICS   OF  THE  TRADERS 

tive  of  the  "  cultured  "  philistines,  were  pretty 
much  all  they  ought  not  to  be.  Their  "  brusque- 
ness  of  manner  and  carelessness  about  dress  " 
were  signs,  not  of  freedom,  as  they  ignorantly 
imagined,  but  of  "  imperfect  civilization."  The 
conversation  of  some  of  those  whom  he  had 
observed  was  "profane,  indecent  and  slangy, 
and  trivial,"  and  showed  no  sign  of  "  any  desire 
to  rise  in  the  scale  of  intelligence  or  refine- 
ment." "  I  think,"  he  wrote  in  one  of  his 
papers  intended  for  posterity,  "  the  manners 
and  personal  appearance  of  a  large  part  of  our 
working  population  might  be  greatly  im- 
proved ;  that  their  lives  might  be  made  far 
more  refined  and  picturesque  without  any 
change  of  occupation ;  that  their  houses  and 
other  surroundings  might  be  made  far  better, 
with  more  knowledge  and  effort  on  the  part 
of  themselves  and  their  wives,  if  less  money 
were  spent  on  drink."1 

In  a  word,  he  taught  what  the  "  cultivated  " 
philistines  care  most  to  hear,  and  his  writings 
reveal,  perhaps  more  comprehensively  than 
those  of  any  other  contemporary  publicist,  the 
attitude  generally  taken  by  the  members  of 
this  class  toward  the  producers.  Exceptionally 

1  E.  L.  Godkin,  article  on  "Social  Classes  in  the  Republic," 
Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1896. 

159 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

interesting,  therefore,  is  his  treatment  of  social 
distinctions :  — 

"  It  is  a  little  difficult  to  discuss  this  branch  of  the 
subject  with  out  seeming  to  treat  it  too  lightly.  Social 
inferiority  is  a  common  complaint  of  Socialists  every- 
where against  the  classes  which  do  not  work  with 
their  hands.  But  nobody  has  as  yet  pointed  out  how 
it  is  to  be  overcome  any  more  than  how  differences 
in  strength  of  mind  or  body  are  to  be  overcome. 
One  of  the  dearest  liberties  of  the  human  race  is 
each  man's  liberty  of  choosing  his  own  associates. 
His  choice,  too,  is  not  regulated  simply  by  attractions 
of  mind  or  character,  but  by  manner  of  living.  I 
associate,  except  in  rare  instances,  with  those  who 
live  like  myself,  who  have  the  same  ideas  of  social 
enjoyment,  who  dress  and  behave  in  social  life  much 
as  I  and  my  family  do,  whose  walk  and  conversation 
I  find  interesting  and  instructive.  Workingmen  do 
the  same  thing.  I  venture  on  the  assertion  that  it 
is  very  rare  indeed  for  any  man  or  woman  to  be  kept 
out  of  any  society  which  would  enjoy  his  or  her 
presence.  People  do  not,  as  a  rule,  associate  to 
assert  a  principle  or  spread  ideas.  They  associate 
for  purposes  of  enjoyment ;  workingmen  do  so  them- 
selves. Congeniality  or  similarity  of  manners  is  what 
has  drawn  social  lines  ever  since  man  began  to  con- 
sort with  his  fellows.  To  arrange  society  on  legal 
lines  is  beyond  human  powers.  To  be  told  by  any 
human  power  what  company  I  must  keep,  is  to  be  a 
slave,  and  the  restoration  of  social  slavery  is  not  pos- 
sible. Birds  of  a  feather  have  flocked  together  since 

160 


ETHICS   OF  THE  TRADERS 

civilization   began,   and   probably   will  do  so   till  it 
perishes." l 

One  may  smile  at  such  banalities  as  that 
people  generally  associate  with  others  who 
have  the  same  ideas  of  social  enjoyment,  or 
at  the  affected  supposition  that  any  one  — 
even  the  most  rigid  of  mechanical  state  Social- 
ists—  expects  to  compel  by  law  persons  who 
are  mutually  distasteful  to  associate.  One 
may  also  cheerfully  admit  that  birds  of  a 
feather  flock  together,  at  least  when  they  can 
get  together.  But  he  may  still  observe  that 
the  social  tests  which  individuals  employ  in 
choosing  their  associates  may  be  ideally  high 
or  low,  gross  or  fine,  just  or  unjust,  and  that 
they  are  conceivably  subject  to  change  for 
the  better  or  worse.  Thieves  flock  together, 
and  so  do  harlots  and  politicians.  But  no 
ethical  teacher  thinks,  therefore,  to  sanction 
the  tests  of  social  valuation  which  these  per- 
sons employ.  The  morally  superior  of  any 
two  thieves  might  conceivably  be  the  one  who 
had  instincts  and  standards  above  those  of  his 
kind,  and  who  chose  at  times  to  associate  with 
honest  men.  The  standards  of  choice  in  asso- 
ciation may  be  all  that  Mr.  Godkin  maintained 

1  E.  L.  Godkin,  article  on  "Social  Classes  in  the  Republic," 
Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1896. 

M 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

them  to  be,  and  yet  be  utterly  unjustifiable 
If  the  choice  of  the  average  man,  as  he  writes 
"  is  not  regulated  simply  by  attractions  of  mine 
or  character,  but  by  manner  of  living,"  the  tes 
is  an  odious  one  to  all  right-minded  persons 
and  it  is,  therefore,  something  for  criticism  anc 
correction.  Those  who  fail  to  understand  thii 
are  simply  those  who  can  complacently  reiter 
ate  with  Mr.  Godkin :  "  I  associate,  except  ii 
rare  instances,  with  those  who  live  like  myseli 
who  have  the  same  ideas  of  social  enjoyment 
who  dress  and  behave  in  social  life  much  ai 
I  and  my  family  do,  whose  walk  and  conversa 
tion  I  find  interesting  and  instructive."  Thei: 
outlook  upon  life  is  meanly  circumscribed,  anc 
the  ethical  judgments  they  are  enabled  to  forn 
are  wofully  inadequate  for  beings  of  the  pres 
ent  day.  As  Miss  Addams  writes,  in  instruc 
tive  and  wholesome  contrast :  — 

"  We  are  learning  that  a  standard  of  social  ethici 
is  not  attained  by  travelling  a  sequestered  byway 
but  by  mixing  on  the  thronged  and  common  roac 
where  all  must  turn  out  for  one  another,  and  at  leas' 
see  the  size  of  one  another's  burdens.  .  .  .  W( 
realize,  too,  that  social  perspective  and  sanity  ol 
judgment  come  only  from  contact  with  social  expe 
rience ;  that  such  contact  is  the  surest  corrective  oi 
opinions  concerning  the  social  order,  and  concerning 

162 


ETHICS   OF  THE  TRADERS 

efforts,  however  humble,  for  its  improvement.  .  .  . 
We  have  learned  as  common  knowledge  that  much 
of  the  insensibility  and  hardness  of  the  world  is  due 
to  the  lack  of  imagination  which  prevents  a  realiza- 
tion of  the  experiences  of  other  people.  Already 
there  is  a  conviction  that  we  are  under  a  moral  obli- 
gation in  choosing  our  experiences,  since  the  result 
of  those  experiences  must  ultimately  determine  our 
understanding  of  life.  We  know  instinctively  that  if 
we  grow  contemptuous  of  our  fellows,  and  consciously 
limit  our  intercourse  to  certain  kinds  of  people  whom 
we  have  previously  decided  to  respect,  we  not  only 
tremendously  circumscribe  our  range  of  life,  but  limit 
the  scope  of  our  ethics."  l 


III 

Besides  these  two  grievances,  there  is  a  very 
serious  accusation  which  lies  in  the  minds  of 
many  of  the  producers,  and  is  openly  expressed 
by  some,  against  the  "  rich,"  meaning  the  trad- 
ing class  and  its  higher  business  retainers. 
The  accusation  is  of  dishonesty,  —  not  the  in- 
cidental dishonesty  shown  in  the  common 
practices  of  commercial  life,  but  a  fundamental 
dishonesty  in  the  very  nature  of  trading-class 
incomes.  It  arises  from  the  conviction  that  the 
rich  derive  their  comforts  and  luxuries  solely 

1  Jane  Addams,  Democracy  and  Social  Ethics  (1902),  pp.  6-10. 

163 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

from  the  toil  of  the  producers,  and  that  they 
give  little  or  nothing  in  return.  This  convic- 
tion follows  the  ethic  of  usefulness,  which  re- 
quires service  of  a  demonstrable  social  utility 
as  a  condition  of  receiving  a  living;  and  the 
question  that  it  prompts  in  the  producer  con- 
sciousness is  this:  Of  what  economic  use  are 
the  rich  ? 

Those  of  the  rich  who  are  more  or  less 
directly  concerned  with  production  comprise 
three  types  —  the  capitalist  per  se,  the  specula- 
tor, and  the  "legitimate"  business  man  — 
though  it  often  happens  that  two,  or  even  all 
three,  of  these  roles  are  played  by  one  and  the 
same  person.  To  the  producer  the  speculator 
appears  solely  as  an  exploiter  —  as  one  whose 
entire  income  is  exploitation.  He  renders  no 
service  of  any  kind  to  society,  and  he  levies 
an  enormous  tax  upon  production.  The  man 
in  "legitimate"  business,  however,  admittedly 
renders  service.  There  must  be  directors  of 
industry,  otherwise  the  wheels  would  soon  come 
to  a  stop ;  and  since  the  producers  have  not  of 
themselves  chosen  such  managers  to  preside 
over  their  activities,  the  business  man,  in  their 
default,  takes  the  function  upon  himself.  He 
directs,  or  selects  others  to  direct,  the  opera- 
tions of  production  and  distribution.  Con- 

164 


ETHICS   OF  THE  TRADERS 

fessedly,  his  motive  is  not  social  usefulness,  but 
merely  profit-making ;  but  by  his  social  service 
he  indubitably  earns  a  living.  How  much  is 
he  entitled  to  ?  Obviously,  to  the  producer 
mind,  not  to  "  all  that  he  can  make,"  but  to  no 
more  than  the  computable  value  of  the  service 
he  renders  to  society.  Profits  and  high  salaries 
are  consequently,  looked  upon,  partly  as  earned 
wages  of  superintendence,  but  in  larger  part  as 
exploitation. 

Finally,  there  is  the  capitalist,  he  who  does 
not  toil,  but  who  nevertheless  makes  heavy 
drafts  on  the  product  of  those  who  do.  His 
income,  judged  by  working-class  ethics,  is  al- 
most wholly  exploitation.  He  performs,  it  is 
admitted,  at  a  certain  point  a  momentary  func- 
tion of  service ;  for  in  the  act  of  "  making  an 
investment"  he  exercises  a  selective  influence 
as  between  the  various  candidates  for  the  post 
of  director  of  industry,  or  he  says  "  yes  "  or  "  no  " 
to  the  desire  of  some  industrial  captain  to  en- 
large the  field  of  his  direction.  In  making  this 
selection  he  does  not  of  course  weigh  the  rela- 
tive probabilities  of  social  usefulness  of  this  or 
that  man  or  undertaking  —  he  thinks  only  of 
the  effect  upon  himself,  of  the  nature  and  vol- 
ume of  his  returns ;  yet  choice  made  on  private 
grounds  has  at  least  a  partial  tendency  to  bring 

165 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

to  the  front  men  and  enterprises  that  are  of 
general  use.  Hence,  admitting  for  the  moment 
the  rightfulness  of  private  capital,  the  capital- 
ist is  entitled  to  compensation  whenever  he 
performs  the  selective  function  —  to  a  fee  each 
time  he  makes  a  new  investment.  The  sum 
total  of  these  fees  rightly  earned  by  the  en- 
tire capitalist  class  is  not,  however,  an  appre- 
ciable fraction  of  the  present  income  of  capital. 
Interest,  rents,  and  dividends  are  condemned 
by  the  ethic  of  usefulness  as  unearned,  wrong- 
fully apportioned,  and  wrongfully  held. 

This  selection,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  is 
the  sole  economic  function  of  the  immense  finan- 
cial hierarchy,  from  the  rank  of  millionnaires 
down  through  grade  after  grade  of  lesser  men 
to  the  office  boy.  When  it  is  considered  what 
an  enormous  tax,  in  the  shape  of  interest,  divi- 
dends, profits,  and  salaries,  is  taken  out  of  the 
producers  every  year;  and  when  it  is  further  con- 
sidered what  a  simple  function  —  even  though 
at  its  best  it  requires  high  talent  —  this  selec- 
tion is,  and  that  it  could  be  more  scientifically 
and  cheaply  performed  by  a  commission  of 
statisticians,  process  experts,  and  master  me- 
chanics, it  may  be  perceived  how  well-founded 
is  the  conviction  of  the  producers  that  the 
whole  tribe  of  financiers  and  their  retainers  is 

1 66 


ETHICS   OF   THE   TRADERS 

relatively  useless.  One  may  even  go  farther; 
and  seeing  that  the  only  active  force  prevent- 
ing the  adoption  by  the  people  of  the  simple 
and  just  way  of  arranging  how  much  and  what 
productive  work  shall  be  done  each  year,  is  the 
opposition  of  the  financiers  and  their  retainers, 
commercial  and  intellectual,  one  is  forced  to 
conclude  that  the  net  service  of  these  men, 
in  return  for  their  enormous  levy  on  the 
producers,  is  a  negative  quantity — that  it  is 
obstructive  and  anti-social. 


167 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE  REIGN  OF  GRAFT 

TRADING-CLASS  morality  under  individualist, 
competitive  industry  has  its  inevitable  outcome 
in  "  graft."  The  term  was  but  slang,  unworthy 
to  be  countenanced,  when  the  1899  edition  of 
the  Century  Dictionary  went  to  press.  But  a 
growing  recognition  of  the  prevalence  of  the 
thing  itself,  and  an  increasing  appreciation  of 
the  peculiar  expressiveness  of  the  term,  have 
forced  its  acceptance  into  the  literary  language 
of  the  day.  So  far,  its  use  is,  in  the  main,  gen- 
eral and  undifferentiated ;  for  it  is  employed  to 
describe  not  only  (i)  the  power  or  capacity  to 
extort  wealth  or  service,  but  (2)  the  act  or  prac- 
tice of  extortion,  and  also  (3)  the  wealth  or 
service  extorted.  We  say,  for  instance,  that 
the  graft  of  a  certain  street  railway  company  is 
a  menace  to  the  interests  of  all  citizens;  that 
graft  flourishes  in  the  proud  commonwealth  of 
Missouri,  and  that  the  distinguished  patriot,  the 
Hon.  Birdofreedum  Jones,  is  getting  big  graft 

168 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

from  the  Banner  Oil  Trust.  But  it  is  in  the 
sense  of  the  second  definition  that  purists  most 
frequently  employ  it,  and  we  may  expect  that 
with  the  slow  efflux  of  time  its  use  will  be 
specifically  so  confined. 

Graft  flourishes,  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  say, 
not  only  in  the  commonwealth  of  Missouri,  but 
in  every  state  and  territory,  city,  county,  town- 
ship, and  hamlet,  in  the  United  States.  It  is 
the  necessary,  inevitable  resultant  of  trading- 
class  ethics  under  individualist,  competitive 
industry;  and  the  cumulative  effects  of  1900 
years  of  hortatory  appeals  to  the  individual  to 
"  be  good,"  exert  about  as  much  restraint  upon 
its  activity  as  would  the  opposition  of  an  insect 
upon  the  revolutions  of  the  fly-wheel  of  a  Cor- 
liss engine. 

An  adequate  history  of  graft  in  these  United 
States  would  require  a  greater  quantity  of  print 
than  that  contained  in  the  latest  edition  of  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica.  It  would  rightly 
begin  with  July  4,  1776,  —  not  because  that 
date  marked  the  beginning  of  graft,  but  because 
it  marked  the  beginning  of  the  United  States,1 
—  and  it  would  continue  to  the  last  hour  before 
going  to  press.  Graft  flourished  in  the  early 

1  The  captious,  if  they  choose,  may  take  the  alternative  date, 
April  30,  1789. 

169 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

days  of  the  Republic  as  it  now  flourishes.  In- 
deed, relative  to  the  wealth,  the  population,  and 
the  number  of  commercial  transactions,  it  was 
probably  more  widespread  then  than  now. 
Society,  in  its  organized  form,  the  state,  has 
been  compelled,  for  its  own  salvation,  to  limit 
the  opportunities  for  graft  —  to  narrow  the 
boundaries  of  the  total  of  permitted  actions, 
and  to  penalize  year  by  year  the  acts  which 
before  were  regarded  as  "  legitimate  business." 

It  would  be  a  matter  for  exultant  pride  if  the 
advance  of  legislation  in  defining  commercial 
graft,  slow  and  paltry  as  that  advance  has  been, 
could  be  proved  to  be  due  to  a  growth  of  public 
conscience.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  this  can  be 
shown.  What  has  happened  is  a  growth  of 
consciousness.  The  trader  comes  to  recognize 
the  utter  demoralization  to  business  resulting 
from  certain  kinds  of  actions  which  he  and  his 
fellows  practise,  and  he  appeals  to  the  state  to 
forbid  them.  At  the  same  time  the  number  of 
producers  enormously  augments,  and  the  pro- 
ducer consciousness  allies  itself  with  the  trader 
consciousness  for  a  restriction  of  these  more 
odious  forms  of  graft.  But  the  forms  which 
are  not  fratricidal  as  between  the  members  of 
a  class  —  the  forms  which  permit  the  exploit- 
ing of  one  class  by  another  —  undergo  a  far 

170 


THE   REIGN   OF  GRAFT 

more  tardy  correction.  The  adulteration  graft, 
the  franchise  graft,  the  various  forms  of  legal 
and  judicial  graft,  are  some  of  these  forms,  the 
abolition  of  which  is  delayed,  and  in  some  cases 
fought  with  an  unremitting  bitterness. 


Despite  the  universality  of  graft,  despite  the 
growing  recognition  that  it  is  the  inescapable 
resultant  of  individualist,  competitive  industry, 
a  host  of  economists,  ministers,  and  ethical 
teachers  are  ever  voluble  in  proclaiming  the 
beneficence  of  struggle,  the  ethical  progress 
resulting  from  competitive  life.  The  plea  and 
the  assertion  are  to  be  found,  directly  or  in- 
directly, in  the  works  and  oral  pronouncements 
of  most  of  our  present-day  teachers.  In  its 
simplest  and  baldest  form,  stripped  of  meta- 
physical abstractions,  it  appears  about  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

"This  individualistic  and  competitive  system  of 
industry  gives  society  the  best,  cheapest,  and  most 
rapidly  improving  supplies  .  .  .  and  develops  in  the 
only  possible  way  (namely,  by  direct  reward  in  profit) 
the  enterprise,  ingenuity,  energy,  and  courage  that 
alone  could  have  made  modern  civilization.  .  .  .  The 
fundamental  principle  of  the  present  competitive 

171 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

system  of  industry  is  morally  right.  To  each  person 
it  gives,  among  people  prepared  for  it,  all  the  wealth 
he  produces  —  all  that  his  labor,  his  land,  his  capital, 
or  his  management  is  worth  to  the  buyers  of  it  and 
to  society."  1 

It  will  be  interesting  to  inquire  into  this 
furnishing  of  "the  best,  cheapest,  and  most 
rapidly  improving  supplies,"  particularly  ob- 
serving its  relations  to  the  fostering  of  "  modern 
civilization,"  and  the  manner  in  which  it  dis- 
tributes to  each  person  that  which  is  morally 
his  due. 

A  recognition  of  the  universality  of  graft  in 
private  business  is  now  finding  its  way  into  the 
public  prints.  A  few  years  ago  it  would  have 
been  both  anarchy  and  treason  to  mention  the 
universality  of  graft;  but  the  growing  con- 
sciousness of  the  fact  makes  silence  no  longer 
possible.  Mr.  Steffens,  in  his  recent  article 
in  McClures  Magazine,  finds  business  at  the 
bottom  of  all  political  corruption :  — 

"My  gropings  into  the  misgovernment  of  cities 
have  drawn  me  everywhere,  but  always,  always,  out 
of  politics  into  business,  and  out  of  the  cities  into  the 
state.  Business  started  the  corruption  of  politics  in 

1  George  L.  Bolen,  Getting  a  Living  (1903),  pp.  53  and  66. 
The  substance  of  the  last  sentence  is  attributed  by  Mr.  Bolen  to 
Professor  John  B.  Clark. 

172 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

Pittsburg;  upholds  it  in  Philadelphia;  boomed  with 
it  in  Chicago,  and  withered  with  its  reform  ;  and  in 
New  York,  business  financed  the  return  of  Tammany 
Hall.  Here,  then,  is  our  guide  out  of  the  labyrinth. 
Not  the  political  ring,  but  big  Business  —  that  is  thei 
crux  of  the  situation.'* a 

His  article  is  a  painstaking  study  and  a  con- 
vincing account  of  the  political  demoralization 
of  a  great  city  —  St.  Louis  —  and  a  great  state 
—  Missouri  —  through  the  grafting  activities 
of  private  business.  In  a  recent  number  of  The 
World  To-day,  the  president  of  a  certain  man- 
ufacturing corporation  has  an  article  on  what 
may  be  called  purchasing  graft.  The  article 
is  unsigned,  but  the  writer  is  well  known  — 
to  the  author  as  well  as  to  thousands  of 
other  persons  throughout  the  country  —  and 
his  statements  can  be  taken  with  entire 
credence.  As  the  selling  agent  of  his  corpora- 
tion, he  has  become  thoroughly  acquainted 
with  the  conventional  means  by  which  pur- 
chasing agents  are  induced  to  place  their 
orders :  — 

"  It  has  been  a  common  remark  in  the  West  that 
the  purchasing  agents  of  railroads  would  become 

1  Lincoln  Steffens,  article  on  "  Enemies  of  the  Republic," 
McClure's  Magazine,  April,  1904. 

173 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

rich  on  a  salary  of  $2000  or  $3000.  They  have  been 
known  to  build  $25,000  houses  out  of  the  surplusage 
of  one  year's  income.  The  vice-president  of  a  car- 
manufacturing  company  told  me  a  few  years  ago  that 
he  did  the  bulk  of  the  selling  for  his  company,  and 
that  nine-tenths  of  his  orders  were  got  by  bribing  the 
purchasing  agents  and  occasionally  the  president  or 
vice-president  Sealskin  sacks  to  the  wives  were  a 
not  uncommon  method.  In  one  case,  it  was  a  fine 
horse  and  carriage,  in  another  a  yacht.  The  treas- 
urer of  another  company  dealing  in  railroad  supplies 
told  me  how,  before  he  went  to  a  neighboring  city, 
he  invariably  sent  his  own  personal  check  (not  his 
company's,  because  that  would  not  look  well)  to  the 
purchasing  agent  of  one  of  the  largest  systems  on 
this  continent.  This  man,  now  dead,  was  a  fine- 
looking,  white-haired  Scotchman,  elder  in  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  and  universally  respected.  When 
the  salesman  got  there  he  went  through  the  railroad's 
supply  stock,  made  up  the  order,  and  fixed  the  prices. 
He  remarked,  with  a  wink,  that  his  company  did  not 
lose  any  money  even  if  they  had  paid  $1000  before 
each  trip.  These  checks  were  never  acknowledged, 
and  nothing  was  said.  They  ranged  from  $500  to 
$1000  each  time,  and  my  friend  shrewdly  remarked 
that  once  or  twice,  when  the  checks  had  been  small, 
the  order  had  been  cut  short  before  finished,  and  the 
benevolent,  white-haired  old  purchasing  agent  had 
remarked  that  he  had  to  give  so  and  so,  mentioning 
a  rival  firm,  a  little  of  his  business,  you  know.  After 
these  gentle  hints,  larger  checks  were  sent,  and  the 

174 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

rival  did  not  get  a  smell  of  the  business,  no  matter 
how  low  his  prices  were." 1 

Trading-class  morality  is  the  resultant  of  class 
interest  and  function,  as  that  interest  and  that 
function  are  determined  by  the  prevailing 
mode  of  production  and  distribution.  Indi- 
vidual competition  is  the  underlying  principle 
of  that  mode.  Regarding  the  character  of  the 
acts  which  flow  from  it,  Mr.  Otis  Kendall 
Stuart  has  some  suggestive  words  in  a  recent 
number  of  The  Independent:  — 

"  Is  not  .  .  .  the  conclusion  irresistible  that  men 
are  driven  to  dishonesty  in  business  because  of  a 
vicious  business  system  —  because  of  a  system  which 
tends  always  to  hide  the  true  function  of  business  — 
a  system  which  makes  '  individual  success '  its  ideal, 
and  the  money  a  man  accumulates  the  measure  of 
that  success  ?  That  system,  with  its  low  ideal,  its 
immoral  point  of  view,  and  its  loose  distinctions,  ties 
the  hands  of  many  a  man  of  affairs,  no  matter  how 
honest  naturally  he  may  be.  The  rigid  chain  of  com- 
petition literally  binds  him  to  use  all  the  desperate 
means  of  his  business  rival  —  the  lowest  obtainable 
scale  of  wages,  the  most  improved  machinery,  the 
most  nearly  automatic  methods,  and  the  same  refined 
mendacity  and  mountainous  exaggeration.  And  in 

1  Article  on  "  Graft  in  Private  Business  "  by  "  The  President 
of  a  Well-known  Manufacturing  Corporation,"  The  World  To- 
day ^  January,  1904. 

175 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

many  lines  the  exaggeration  and  mendacity  are  as 
necessary  tools  of  trade  as  the  improved  machin- 
ery and  the  automatic  methods.  They  are  planned 
with  consummate  art,  are  perfectly  systematized,  and 
might  easily  be  classified  by  the  political  economist."1 

Hon.  Eugene  A.  Philbin,  at  one  time  Dis- 
trict Attorney  of  the  County  of  New  York, 
had  ample  opportunity  for  observing  the  mani- 
festations of  trading-class  morality  in  a  great 
city.  That  his  observations  were  made  to 
some  purpose,  the  following  extract  from  an 
article  written  by  him  will  show :  — 

^ "  In  the  relentless  competition  that  exists,  the 
maxim  that  *  necessity  knows  no  law '  is  apt  to  be 
adopted  and  the  sense  of  right  blunted.  Thus  it 
may  happen  that  the  man  wholly  fails  to  realize  that 
his  action  is  not  in  conformity  with  the  standards 
referred  to ;  his  conscience  may  be  of  such  a  charac- 
ter as  to  require  nothing  short  of  an  X-ray  light. 
Thus  merchants  of  the  greatest  respectability  will 
do  a  thing  as  a  good,  shrewd  business  stroke,  that 
according  to  ordinary  standards  of  morality  would  be 
positively  wrong.  The  following  story  will  illustrate 
more  clearly  what  I  mean,  although  it  may  perhaps 
be  an  extreme  case :  — 

'"An  out-of-town  merchant  sent  a  large  quantity 
of  silverware  to  a  firm  in  the  trade  with  whom  he 

1  Otis  Kendall  Stuart,  article  on  "Business  Honesty  —  and 
Honesty,"  The  Independent,  March  19,  1903. 

176 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

was  acquainted,  with  the  request  that  the  lot  be  sold. 
The  firm  selected  from  the  consignment  some  pieces 
for  their  own  use  and  offered  the  balance  for  sale. 
A  bid  was  received  and  telegraphed  to  the  owner, 
who  accepted  it  He  never  knew  anything  about  the 
consignees  taking  the  pieces  for  themselves.  Now 
the  latter  had  entirely  clear  consciences  as  to  the 
transaction.  Had  not  the  consignee  accepted  with 
satisfaction  the  price  offered  for  the  lot  and  author- 
ized the  delivery  upon  such  terms  ?  What  then  was 
wrong  in  the  firm  taking  the  articles  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, although  they  received  compensation  for 
their  services  ? ' 

"One  of  them  told  me  of  the  incident  as  an  evi- 
dence of  his  business  ability,  and  certainly  perceived 
nothing  immoral  about  the  affair.  Such  an  instance 
furnishes  only  a  slight  indication  of  the  mind  of  the 
average  man  in  business  as  to  moral  law."  l 

Since  the  traders  are  at  present  the  dominant 
class,  it  naturally  follows  that  trading-class  ethics 
affect  the  ethics  of  all  society.  A  particular 
ethic,  developed  by  the  specific  needs  and  in- 
terests of  an  inferior  class,  such  as  the  ethic  of 
usefulness,  as  held  by  the  producers,  will  yet 
hold  its  own  as  a  standard  of  moral  judgment ; 
but  in  matters  outside  the  range  of  immediate 
class  interests,  the  producers,  as  well  as  the 

1  Eugene  A.  Philbin,  article  on  "  The  Laws  of  a  Great  City,1' 

in  The  Messenger  (New  York  City),  April,  1903. 

N  177 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

other  subordinate  classes,  become  inoculated 
with  the  prevailing  code  of  the  dominant  class. 
To  what  extent  in  the  general  mass  this  in- 
oculation has  proceeded  is  indicated  in  a 
recently  published  study  by  Mr.  Frederick 
Trevor  Hill:  — 

"  If  further  proof  be  needed  of  our  growing  slack- 
ness, it  can  be  found  in  our  language  and  vocabulary, 
which  is  changing  with  the  tendency  of  the  times. 
We  are  carrying  things  (otherwise  insupportable) 
with  a  laugh,  and  coining  phrases  for  the  purpose. 
As  has  been  said,  we  are  still  sensitive  to  such  coarse 
words  as  '  thief '  and  *  steal,'  but  it  is  vain  to  deny 
among  ourselves  that  certain  unchallenged  doings  of 
to-day  forcibly  suggest  those  terms.  So  we  *  save  our 
face '  with  an  indulgent  gayety,  not  devoid  of  humor. 
We  give  a  twist  and  a  turn  to  the  rapidly  changing 
English  language  and  the  ugly  words  disappear  in 
the  process.  When  a  conductor  steals  a  fare  we 
jocularly  remark  that  he  is  '  knocking  down  on  the 
company ' ;  when  we  steal  a  ride  from  the  same  com- 
pany and  conductor,  we  laughingly  refer  to  our  suc- 
cess in  *  beating  the  game ' ;  when  we  bribe  we  merely 
'  influence '  or  '  square  things ' ;  when  we  are  bribed 
we  collect '  assessments '  or  *  rebates,'  or  *  commissions ' 
or  '  retainers '  and  so  on,  until  we  reach  a  grave  defi- 
nition of  '  honest  graft '  which  would  be  more  humor- 
ous if  so  many  people  did  not  feel  that  the  term 
supplied  them  with  a  long-felt  want.  Now  these  ex- 
pressions and  others  like  them  may  bear  a  strong 


UNIVERSITY 
THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT  ^ 

resemblance  to  thieves'  slang,  but  they  merely  reflect 
the  language  of  a  people  unconsciously  retreating  to 
a  lower  moral  level." 1 

These  comments  on  current  practices  are, 
with  one  exception,  of  the  sort  which  may  be 
called  unconscious  testimony.  They  are  written, 
not  by  rude  disturbers  of  the  social  order, 
wicked  Socialists',  levellers,  come-outers,  and 
the  like,  but  by  persons,  with  one  exception, 
who  accept  the  prevailing  regime,  and  who 
would  doubtless  subscribe  to  the  truth  of 
Mr.  Bolen's  optimistic  generalization  given 
on  a  previous  page.  It  is  unlikely  that  any 
of  them,  except  the  writer  of  the  article  on 
"  Graft  in  Private  Business,"  has  ever  heard 
of  such  barbarous  and  alien  phrases  as  the 
"  economic  interpretation  of  history "  and  the 
"class  struggle."  They  are  therefore  writing, 
not  in  behalf  of  an  economic  or  moral  theory, 
but  to  record  certain  observations  of  practices 
in  the  commercial  world  of  to-day.  They  tes- 
tify consciously  to  the  prevailing  ethics  of  the 
trading  class,  and  unconsciously  to  the  force  of 
class  interest  and  function  in  developing  an 
unsocial  code. 

1  Frederick  Trevor  Hill,  article  on  "  Our  Selfish  Citizenship," 
in  Everybody's  Magazine,  January,  1904. 

179 


MASS  AND   CLASS 


II 

The  genius  of  graft  has  far  more  metamor- 
phoses or  manifestations  than  had  Proteus.  It 
would  be  well,  if  in  passing  from  generals  to 
particulars,  we  could  enumerate  and  sort  out 
the  different  kinds,  and  following  the  method 
of  the  lamented  Lewis  Carroll, 

"...  describe  each  particular  batch, 
Distinguishing  those  that  have  feathers,  and  bite, 
From  those  that  have  whiskers,  and  scratch." 

But  the  task  no  single  person  can  fulfil. 
Properly  to  accomplish  it  would  require  a  staff 
of  investigators,  experts,  compilers,  and  revisers 
like  those  engaged  in  the  production  of  a  great 
dictionary  or  encyclopaedia.  Within  the  limits 
appropriate  to  this  volume,  and  the  capacities 
of  a  single  person,  all  that  can  be  given  is  an 
imperfect  outline. 

i  First  in  importance  is  perhaps  the  adultera- 
tion graft.  Despite  the  most  stringent  laws 
which  society  has  been  compelled  to  enact  in 
order  to  safeguard  life  and  health,  this  odious 
form  of  fraud  is  everywhere  prevalent.  Fresh 
fruit,  and  meat  "  on  the  hoof,"  so  far  defy  adul- 
teration ;  but  aside  from  these  there  is  little 

1 80 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

which  man  consumes  of  the  nature  of  which  he 
can  be  entirely  sure.  Milk,  bread,  cake,  chopped 
meat,  jams,  jellies,  coffee,  tea,  spices,  baking 
powders,  and  flavoring  extracts  are  all  subject 
to  elaborate  "  doctoring  " ;  and  so  are  all  alco- 
holic beverages  and  many  medicines.  The  ex- 
tent of  the  adulteration  graft  in  food  has  been 
variously  estimated.  The  editor  of  The  Ameri- 
can Grocer,  a  representative  of  the  trading  class, 
has  placed  it  at  less  than  one  per  cent.  Even 
at  this  estimate,  the  amount  paid  for  fraudulent 
food  by  the  American  public  in  one  year 
would  approximate  $75,000,000.  Dr.  H.  W. 
Wiley,  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture,  has  recently  placed  the  amount 
of  adulteration  at  5  per  cent.  This  would 
mean  an  annual  grafting  charge  on  the  public 
of  $375,000,000.  Dr.  I.  W.  Abbott,  Secretary 
of  the  State  Board  of  Health  of  Massachu- 
setts, puts  it  at  10  per  cent,  or  $750,000,000 
yearly.  Finally,  Mr.  A.  J.  Wedderburn,  a 
special  agent  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, who  made  a  thorough  investigation 
into  the  whole  subject,  reported  in  1894  that 
"  these  sophistications  can  be  truthfully  said 
to  be  as  broad  as  the  continent,"  and  that 
the  extent  of  adulteration  was  not  less  than 
15  per  cent,  approximating  $1,125,000,000 

181 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

yearly.1  This  total,  tremendous  as  it  is,  relates 
only  to  food,  and  is  exclusive  of  the  adulteration 
in  wine,  whiskey,  beer,  tobacco,  and  drugs,  and 
the  glaring  fraud  of  patent  medicines. 

The  adulteration  of  milk,  with  its  awful  con- 
sequences to  infants  and  invalids,  had  grown  to 
enormous  proportions  all  over  the  country  be- 
fore organized  society  began  to  intervene.  By 
the  beginning  of  1902,  twenty-six  states  and 
territories,  including  the  District  of  Columbia 
and  Porto  Rico,  had  decided  that  trading-class 
morality  under  the  competitive  system  failed 
to  produce  "  the  best  and  most  rapidly  improv- 
ing supplies  "  of  milk,  and  had  enacted  laws  for 
its  inspection.2  Yet  despite  these  laws  the 
adulteration  still  proceeds.  In  New  York  City, 
during  1902,  of  3970  samples  of  milk  taken 
from  dealers  for  analysis,  2095,  or  52.77  per 
cent.,  were  found  to  be  adulterated.  The  arrests 
in  the  city  under  the  inspection  acts  were  1 93  in 
1899,  460  in  1900, 464  in  1901,  and  722  in  1902:* 

1  Address  of  Dr.  William  C  Mitchell,  of  the  Colorado  State 
Board  of  Health,  before  the  Portland  Pure  Food  Convention 
( 1 902) .    Journal  of  Proceedings  of  the  Sixth  Annual  Convention 
of  the  National  Association  of  State  Dairy  and  Food  Depart- 
ments, held  at  Portland,  Or.,  pp.  378-383. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  396. 

8  The  Health  Department.  A  pamphlet  published  by  the 
City  Club  (1903),  p.  23. 

182 


THE    REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

The  different  methods  of  the  Tammany  and 
of  the  Reform  administration  will  explain 
some  of  the  disparity  between  the  figures,  but 
even  with  this  allowance,  the  general  readiness 
to  make  profits  by  illicit  sales  is  strikingly 
shown. 

Well-nigh  as  instructive  is  the  testimony 
from  Ohio.  The  Dairy  and  Food  Depart- 
ment of  that  state  was  created  in  1886.  After 
seventeen  years  of  inspections,  arrests,  and  pros- 
ecutions, adulterations  of  milk  still  continue. 
"Out  of  1199  samples  tested  by  the  chemists," 
says  the  report  for  the  year  ending  November 
15,  1903,  "about  one-fourth  were  found  to  be 
either  below  the  required  standard  in  solids 
and  butter  fats,  or  adulterated  with  that  base 
adulterant  known  as  '  formalin '  or  '  formalde- 
hyde/"1 

Our  other  food  beverages  are  also  sophisti- 
cated. A  modern  Madam  Roland  might  ap- 
propriately exclaim,  as  she  sips  her  breakfast 
cup,  "  O  Coffee,  what  crimes  are  committed 
in  thy  name ! "  Even  when  the  coffee  is  pure, 
it  is  in  another  respect  rarely  what  it  pretends 
to  be.  Our  Mocha  is  for  the  most  part  the 
Brazilian  peaberry,  our  Java  a  product  of 

1  Eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Ohio  Dairy  and  Food  Coin- 
mission  (1903),  p.  8. 

183 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

Bogota.  In  the  whole  bean,  coffee  is  difficult 
of  substitution.  "  All  the  samples  of  whole 
coffee  were  found  to  be  pure,"  naively  records 
the  latest  official  food  report  from  Connecticut,1 
an  indication  that  the  day  of  too  patent  and 
vulgar  frauds  —  of  wooden  nutmegs  and  paste 
coffee  beans  —  is  passing.  But  when  the  bean 
is  ground  or  pulverized,  adulteration  is  easy, 
and  the  natural  consequence  follows.  "  I  re- 
new my  recommendation,"  writes  Commis- 
sioner Blackburn  of  Ohio,  "for  all  people  to 
beware  of  ground  coffee  and  to  always  buy 
from  a  responsible  dealer.  Ground  coffees 
very  frequently  contain  adulterants,  the  most 
common  being  roasted  wheat  hulls,  bran, 
roasted  peas,  or  other  similar  substances."2 
"  Chicory  was  present  in  all  the  adulterated 
samples,"  says  the  latest  Connecticut  report, 
"and  in  two  cases  this  was  the  only  adulter- 
ant. In  addition  to  chicory,  six  of  the  samples 
contained  imitation  coffee,  consisting  of  broken 
lumps  of  a  brown  color  made  of  wheat  flour  or 
middlings,  and  another  contained  pellets  made 
of  pea  hulls  and  other  ingredients." 8  Chicory, 

1  Report  of  the  Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 
(1903),  Part  II,  p.  145. 

2  Ohio  Report  (1899),  p.  9. 

8  Connecticut  Report  (1903),  Part  II,  p.  145. 

184 


THE   REIGN   OF  GRAFT 

it  should  be  noted,  was  for  a  long  time  the  main 
if  not  the  only  adulterant  of  coffee.  It  is  ex- 
pensive, however,  and  the  need  has  arisen  of 
mixing  it  with  a  cheaper  substance.  Compe- 
tition, in  its  lauded  process  of  furnishing  the 
"best  and  most  rapidly  improving  supplies," 
has  thus  brought  about  in  this  instance  the 
adulteration  of  an  adulterant. 

It  is  in  the  mixtures  known  as  "  coffee  com- 
pounds "  that  the  adulteration  graft  mounts  to 
a  crime  which  might  well,  in  Mr.  Kruger's 
phrase,  "  stagger  humanity."  Of  eleven  sam- 
ples of  these  mixtures  analyzed  by  the  Pennsyl- 
vania department  in  1897-98,  six  contained 
no  coffee  whatever,  and  none  contained  more 
than  25  per  cent.  The  contents  ranged  from 
pea  hulls  (64  per  cent,  in  one  instance)  to  bran 
and  the  husks  of  cocoa  beans.1  The  Ohio 
reports  contain  similar  testimony.  One  inter- 
esting sample,  analyzed  in  1900,  showed  ingre- 
dients in  the  following  percentages:  Sand, 
7.59;  sticks,  wood,  and  husks,  2.59;  whole 
coffee  beans,  5.93;  beans  resembling  coffee, 
12.10;  pods,  1.56;  cracked  coffee  grains  and 
foreign  matter,  70.2 1.2 

Tea   is  more   difficult  of   adulteration  —  at 

1  Portland  Proceedings,  p.  469. 

2  Ohio  Report  (1900),  p.  47. 

18$ 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

least  by  domestic  handlers.  Of  course  the 
thrifty  and  ingenious  Mongolian  often  tries 
his  hand  at  sophistication  before  the  tea  is 
shipped.  Leaves  of  the  wild  tea  plant,  leaves 
of  the  cultivated  plant  that  have  withered 
before  being  picked,  as  well  as  leaves  that 
have  been  used  and  then  refired,  have  con- 
fessedly been  brought  here.  But  it  is  doubt- 
ful if  great  quantities  of  these  have  recently 
reached  the  market.  The  inspection  at  the 
ports  is  severe,  and  the  cargoes,  if  declared 
unfit  for  consumption,  are  turned  back.  The 
investigations  of  the  United  States  Agricul- 
tural Department  some  years  ago  revealed 
the  presence  of  a  good  deal  of  inferior  tea 
in  the  market,  along  with  much  that  had 
been  "  touched  up "  with  graphite  to  give  it 
a  proper  gloss.  But  of  adulterations  in  the 
proper  sense  the  findings  were  few.  Cocoa 
and  chocolate,  however,  are  very  generally 
adulterated.  The  Connecticut  report  for 
1902  records  twelve  out  of  thirty-eight  brands 
as  "  variously  adulterated,"  seven  others  being 
mixtures  marked  "compound";  while  in  1903 
eleven  out  of  twenty-nine  brands  were  found 
adulterated,  seven  others  being  "compounds."1 
Bread,  too,  is  variously  sophisticated ;  and  in 

1  Connecticut  Report  (1903),  Part  II,  p.  127. 
1 86 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

such  states  as  have  not  enacted  and  rigorously 
enforced  bakeshop  inspection  laws  this  one-time 
"  staff  of  life  "  might  perhaps  better  be  known 
as  the  "  staff  of  death."  It  is  unlikely  that  any 
present-day  analysis  would  show  such  hetero- 
geneous and  varied  components  as  those  re- 
vealed by  the  London  investigation  of  1863 
—  "human  perspiration  mixed  with  the  dis- 
charge of  abscesses,  cobwebs,  dead  black 
beetles,  and  putrid  German  yeast,  without 
counting  alum,  sand,  and  other  agreeable 
mineral  ingredients"  —  since  present-day  so- 
phistication is  a  more  perfected  art.  But 
for  all  that,  the  reports  of  bakeshop  condi- 
tions that  are  made  from  time  to  time  have 
a  tendency,  in  the  words  of  Marx,  to  turn, 
if  not  the  heart  of  the  public,  at  least  its 
stomach. 

Butter  is  a  commodity  which  apparently  can 
be  made  from  anything;  an  English  chemist 
has  produced  it  from  London  sewage.  That 
our  American  fabricators  are  not  far  behind 
in  their  inventiveness  is  frequently  illustrated 
in  the  various  reports.  Commissioner  Black- 
burn reported  in  1898  large  sales  of  a  thing 
\  known  as  "  renovated  butter,"  and  affirmed 
the  existence  of  several  factories  in  the  nation 
for  producing  it :  — 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

"  These  factories  have  agents  in  all  the  large  mar- 
kets who  buy  up  the  refuse  from  the  commission  men 
and  retailers,  taking  stale,  rancid,  dirty,  and  unsalable 
butter  in  various  degrees  of  putrefaction ;  this  refuse 
is  put  through  a  process  of  boiling,  straining,  filtering, 
and  renovating,  and  is  finally  churned  with  fresh  milk, 
giving  it  a  more  salable  appearance.  The  effect  is 
only  temporary,  however,  as  in  a  few  days  the  stuff 
becomes  rancid  and  the  odor  it  gives  off  is  something 
frightful.  It  is  usually  sold  to  people  having  a  large 
trade  who  will  dispose  of  it  quickly,  for  if  it  is  not 
consumed  at  once  it  cannot  be  used  at  all  without 
being  further  renovated."1 

Despite  laws  against  both  adulteration  and 
substitution,  many  kinds  of  preparations  pur- 
porting to  be  butter  are  sold  in  enormous 
quantities  throughout  the  country.  Of  fifty- 
eight  samples  of  stuff  sold  as  butter,  analyzed  in 
Ohio  in  1899,  fifty  proved  to  be  oleomargarine, 
four  to  be  adulterated  and  two  renovated  butter, 
while  two  evidently  defied  nomenclature.  Not 
one  sample  of  the  entire  lot  met  the  standard 
tests.2 

The  baking-powder  graft  has  received  such 
excellent  treatment  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Steffens8 

1  Ohio  Report  (1898),  p.  10. 

2  Ibid.  (1899),  pp.  94-101. 

3  Lincoln  Steffens,  article  on  u  Enemies  of  the  Republic," 
McClurfs  Magazine,  April,  1904. 

188 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

that  it  would  be  superfluous  to  treat  it  here. 
Passing  mention  may  be  given,  however,  to  the 
analysis  of  a  certain  "  alum  baking  powder " 
made  by  Health  Commissioner  Lederle,  in  New 
York  City,  early  in  1902.  This  powder  was 
widely  advertised  and  sold  in  large  quantities. 
It  was  found  to  contain  about  30  per  cent,  of 
pulverized  rock. 

Closely  allied  to  the  baking-powder  graft  is , 
the  cream-tartar  graft.  The  cream  tartar  of 
commerce,  under  the  analysis  of  the  chemists, 
is  likely  to  turn  out  to  be  anything  within  a 
wide  range  running  from  pure  bicarbonate  of 
soda  to  a  mixture  of  starch,  calcium  phosphate 
acid,  and  gypsum.  Equally  deceptive  are  the 
flavoring  extracts.  Vanilla  essence  is  often 
made  from  tonka  beans,  artificial  coumarin,  and 
glycerole,  while  lemon  essence  seems  to  be  pro- 
duced from  whatever  comes  handiest  to  the 
fabricator.  Professor  R.  E.  Doolittle,  in  his 
address  before  the  Portland  Pure  Food  Con- 
vention, gave  the  following  summary  of  his 
investigations  in  this  matter:  — 

"  A  few  months  ago  I  had  the  inspectors  secure 
samples  of  the  different  brands  of  lemon  extracts  for 
sale  in  the  state.  Something  like  a  hundred  samples 
have  been  received  up  to  date.  Of  the  eighty-six 
so  far  analyzed,  forty-four  show  no  oil  of  lemon,  or 

189 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

at  least  not  enough  for  estimation ;  only  eight  are 
above  5  per  cent.,  and  all  except  six  are  colored  with 
some  foreign  coloring  matter,  almost  all  of  which 
are  coal-tar  dyes.  As  you  are  all  aware,  the  extract, 
spirit,  or  essence  of  lemon  of  the  United  States  Phar- 
macopeia is  a  5  per  cent,  solution  (by  volume)  of  the 
oil  of  lemon  in  strong  alcohol,  colored  with  lemon 
peel."1 

,  Strained  honey  frequently,  perhaps  usually, 
turns  out  to  be  glucose,  pure  and  simple.  Even 
honey  in  the  comb  is  often  worthless,  from  the 
fact  that  it  is  produced  by  sugar-fed  bees. 
Maple  syrup  would  appear  to  have  small  right 
to  its .  name.  "  If  every  farm  in  the  state," 
writes  the  Hon.  Horace  Ankenny,  Ohio's  pres- 
ent Dairy  and  Food  Commissioner,  "  had  had  a 
maple  orchard,  and  made  maple  syrup  there- 
from, it  is  questioned  whether  there  would  be 
sufficient  to  duplicate  the  amount  of  so-called 
maple  syrups  found  in  stock.  From  the  best 
information  at  hand,  Ohio  is  no  exception  in 
this  regard,  the  other  states  being  as  fully  sup- 
plied with  similar  so-called  maple  syrup."2  Of 
one  hundred  and  twenty-nine  samples  bearing 
this  name,  analyzed  by  the  Ohio  Commission 

in    1903,  only  twenty-seven  were  found  to  be 

**?  .  , 

1  Portland  Proceedings,  p.  451. 
8  Ohio  Report  (1903),  p.  7. 
190 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

pure.  "  The  remainder  was  made  up  of  syrups 
of  various  constituents,  some  of  them  contain- 
ing scarcely  any  maple  at  all  and  ranging  from 
a  quite  small  per  cent,  on  up  to  75  or  80  per 
cent,  of  actual  maple."  * 

Fruit  spreads  —  jams,  jellies,  and  preserves  — 
would  seem  to  be  very  rarely  what  they  pretend 
to  be.  So  long  as  gelatin,  timothy  seed,  and 
aniline  remain  at  their  present  low  prices,  the 
supply  of  red  raspberry  jam  is  likely  to  be  equal 
to  all  demands.  Sometimes,  of  course,  actual 
berries  are  used,  but  even  in  that  case  apple 
pulp  or  gelatin  furnishes  the  base  or  stock  of 
the  mixture.  A  "peach  jelly"  recently  ana- 
lyzed in  Ohio  contained  31.25  per  cent,  glucose, 
with  "  no  peaches  about  it " ; 2  and  a  sample  of 
"  raspberry  preserves  "  turned  out  to  be  a  "  mix- 
ture of  glucose,  starchy  matter,  gelatin,  jelly, 
and  dried  raspberries." 8 

Through  almost  the  entire  range  of  food 
products  adulteration  proceeds,  in  defiance  of 
public  health  and  specific  legislation.  Even 
the  unadulterable  pea  is  freshened  into  a  vivid 
green  with  copper  salts,  and  the  cherry  is  filled 
with  glucose  and  crimsoned  with  aniline.  The 
beneficent  results  of  competition  in  furnishing 

1  Ohio  Report  (1903),  p.  7.  2  Ibid.  (1900),  p.  54. 

8  Ibid.  (1899),  p.  132. 

191 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

the  "  best  and  most  rapidly  improving  supplies  " 
must  evidently  be  looked  for  in  other  quarters 
than  those  of  the  manufacturers  and  venders  of 
food.  Only  when  organized  society,  the  state, 
intervenes,  is  the  tendency  of  competition  to 
debase  commodities  seriously  checked.  In  New 
York  City  alone  the  quantity  of  injurious  food 
condemned  and  destroyed  by  the  authorities  in 
one  year  (1902)  was  12,293,761  pounds.  The 
restraint  imposed  by  a  fear  of  the  law  undoubt- 
edly prevented  other  millions  of  pounds  from 
being  offered  for  sale.  So  that,  in  the  absence 
of  inspection  laws,  all  of  these  12,293,761  pounds, 
and  millions  of  other  pounds  as  well,  would 
have  been  unloaded  upon  the  consuming  pub- 
lic. Of  such  is  the  contribution  which  compe- 
tition makes  to  the  furnishing  of  the  "  best  and 
most  rapidly  improving  supplies  "  and  to  the 
fostering  of  "modern  civilization." 


Ill 

It  was  fifty  years  ago  that  Tennyson  solemnly 
chanted  the  fact  that 

".  .  .  Chalk  and  alum  and  plaster  are  so  Id  to  the  poor 

for  bread, 
And  the  spirit  of  murder  works  in  the  very  means  of 

life," 

192 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

and   pictured,  among  others,  the  dispenser  of, 
drugs  as  a  general  participant  in  the  universal 
practice  of  fraud :  — 

"While   another  is  cheating  the  sick  of  a  few  last 

gasps  as  he  sits 
To  pestle  a  poison'd  poison  behind  his  crimson  lights." 

Though  in  fifty  years  the  class  interest  and 
function  of  the  master  baker  have  been  some- 
what modified  by  the  partial  enforcement  of 
bakeshop  inspection  laws,  the  druggist,  it  would 
seem  from  recent  investigations,  is  as  yet  "  un- 
reconstructed." There  are  laws,  it  is  true, 
which  are  intended  to  prohibit  the  things  he 
most  delights  to  do,  but  they  appear  to  be,  for 
the  most  part,  ineffective.  Violations  of  the 
laws  or  ordinances  against  the  sale  of  poisons 
appear  to  be  general;1  and  while  these  are 
not,  strictly  speaking,  instances  of  graft,  they 
are  at  least  instances  of  the  assertion  of  trading- 
class  interest  in  defiance  of  public  interest. 
Much  more  to  the  point  are  the  concocting  and 
sale  of  patent  medicines,  practically  all  of  which 
are  grafts,  and  the  frequent  substitutions  of 
wood  (or  methyl)  alcohol  for  ethyl  alcohol,  and 
acetanilid  for  phenacetin.  "  Methyl  alcohol," 

1  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Board  of  Pharmacy  (1903), 
pp.  14-15. 

o  193 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

says  the  latest  report  of  the  New  York  State 
Board  of  Pharmacy,  "  is  commonly  recognized 
to  be  a  very  dangerous  poison." l  Taken  inter- 
nally, it  is  known  to  have  caused  Saint  Vitus's 
dance,  paralysis,  and  total  blindness.  Even 
when  used  externally,  as  in  certain  liniments 
and  tinctures,  it  is  exceedingly  harmful.  Yet 
in  1903,  Dr.  Lederle,  then  the  head  of  the 
New  York  City  Health  Department,  found  that 
some  forty  druggists  were  using  it,  not  only  in 
spirits  of  ammonia,  but  in  tincture  of  ginger. 
Acetanilid  is  generally  regarded  as  a  very  dan- 
gerous heart  depressant.  Its  price,  however,  is 
low  —  about  twenty-five  cents  a  pound  whole- 
sale—  and  it  thus  admirably  conduces  to  the 
making  of  profit  as  a  substitute  for  phenacetin. 
Dr.  Lederle's  statement  of  January  14,  1903, 
showed  that  of  three  hundred  and  seventy-three 
samples  of  alleged  phenacetin  purchased  from 
druggists  in  Manhattan  and  Brooklyn,  "three 
hundred  and  fifteen  were  found  to  be  adulter- 
ated or  to  be  composed  entirely  of  substances 
other  than  phenacetin.  Only  fifty-eight  were 
pure."2  A  yet  more  recent  investigation  of 
New  York  City  druggists  by  the  State  Board 

1  Pharmacy  Report  (1903),  p.  14. 

2  The  Health  Department  (published  by  the  City  Club,  New 
York)  (1903),  p.  25. 

194 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

of  Pharmacy  revealed  the  fact  that  35.5  per 
cent,  of  all  from  whom  samples  of  various  drugs 
were  bought  for  analysis  were  selling  adultera- 
tions. "  The  results  of  the  analysis "  (some 
nine  hundred  made  during  the  year),  euphemis- 
tically says  the  report,  "  were  in  many  respects 
far  from  flattering  if  construed  as  an  estimate 
of  the  disposition  of  the  average  pharmacist  to 
live  up  to  the  requirements  of  the  pharmacy 
law  and  to  the  recognized  standard  of  purity 
and  strength  of  preparations."1  Verily,  there 
may  be  other  than  illusory  reasons  why  num- 
bers of  persons  give  up  drugs  and  go  over  into 
the  camp  of  the  Christian  Scientists. 

That  class  ethics  were  grievously  violated  by 
the  energetic  Dr.  Lederle  in  his  disclosures  re- 
garding the  offending  druggists  was  roundly 
charged.  "  I  am  permitted  to  set  down,"  writes 
Mr.  Alfred  Hodder,  after  an  interview  with  the 
Commissioner, 

"that  a  number  of  them  [the  druggists]  and  sev- 
eral important  members  of  the  medical  profession 
remonstrated  with  him  for  not  having  given  them 
warning  and  for  having  exposed  'the  tricks  of  the 
trade,'  so  to  speak,  to  the  public.  True,  Dr.  Led- 
erle is  not  a  doctor  of  medicine;  he  is  a  doctor  of 
science ;  but  the  mere  letters  '  Dr.'  before  his  name, 

1  Pharmacy  Report  (1903),  p.  13. 
195 


MASS  AND    CLASS 

it  seems,  should  have  bound  him  to  a  certain  esprit 
de  corps.  The  sale  to  the  public  of  dishonest  drugs 
is  a  small  matter  in  comparison  with  the  mainte- 
nance of  an  esprit  de  corps."  1 

Along  with  the  adulteration  of  practically 
every  other  thing  that  is  taken  into  the  human 
stomach,  the  constant  debasement  of  wines  and 
liquors  must  not  be  forgotten.  It  has  been 
estimated  after  careful  investigation  that  75 
per  cent,  of  the  whiskey  sold  in  New  York  City 
would  come  under  the  head  of  adulterations  or 
substitutions.  Dr.  Lederle's  recent  investiga- 
tions showed  that  the  stuff  called  whiskey 
which  is  sold  over  the  bars  in  the  cheaper 
downtown  saloons  is  not  whiskey  at  all,  but  a 
mixture  of  alcohol  with  "prune  juice"  and 
other  aromatics.  Even  the  "prune  juice"  is 
usually  fraudulent,  since  in  few  cases  is  it  de- 
rived from  the  fruit.  But  though  the  cheaper 
whiskey  is  not  whiskey,  it  is  found  to  be  more 
healthful,  or  less  harmful,  than  the  greater  part 
of  the  stuff  that  is  sold  for  15  cents  a  glass. 
This  latter,  even  when  a  true  distillation,  is 
often  new  and  crude,  containing  fusel  oil  and 
other  poisons,  the  whole  being  blended  and 
flavored  into  a  drinkable  compound.  "The 

1  Alfred  Hodder,  article  on  "  Reform  that  Reforms,"  Every- 
body's Magazine,  November,  1903. 

196 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

one  article  next  to  oleomargarine,"  says  the 
Ohio  report  for  1899,  "which  appears  to  be 
more  generally  adulterated  than  any  other  is 
whiskey."  The  report  for  1900  admits  an  im- 
provement in  the  situation,  but  declares  that 
forty-one  out  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-one  sam- 
ples analyzed  were  found  to  be  adulterated. 

Wine  is  even ,  more  generally  sophisticated 
than  whiskey.  Though  pure  native  wines  are 
produced  in  several  sections  of  the  country, 
particularly  in  California,  New  York,  Ohio, 
and  New  Jersey,  the  belief  is  still  fostered  by 
interested  persons  that  only  imported  wines 
are  fit  for  consumption.  The  interests  of  im- 
porter, jobber,  and  dealer  are  advanced  by  con- 
tinuing the  demand  for  foreign  vintages,  since 
what  pretend  to  be  such  almost  invariably  bring 
higher  prices  and  a  larger  profit.  Yet  it  has 
been  shown  over  and  over  again  that  the  so- 
called  foreign  wine  in  the  market  is  in  the 
main  a  synthetic  product,  and  that  often  it 
contains  no  wine  whatever.  The  statement 
of  Professor  Robert  M.  Allen,  Secretary  of  the 
National  Pure  Food  Association,  given  to  the 
press  on  January  15  of  the  present  year,  deals 
with  the  matter  as  follows :  — 

"  I  learn  from  the  authorities  of  the  municipal 
laboratories  of  Paris  that  60  per  cent,  of  the  French 

197 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

wines  and  80  per  cent,  of  their  champagnes  are 
either  adulterations  or  imitations,  notwithstanding 
the  French  vineyards  had  thp  greatest  yield  the 
past  two  years  within  a  century,  and  pure  wine  itself 
had  been  very  cheap.  Much  of  the  wines  included 
in  the  60  per  cent,  never  saw  a  vineyard,  and  grape 
forms  no  part  of  their  composition.  The  wines  and 
champagnes  are  adulterated  with  new  alcohol,  color- 
ing matter,  and  acids  deleterious  to  health."  1 

One  of  our  consuls  in  France  has  within  the 
last  year  made  the  statement  that  "  there  are 
no  chateau  or  vineyard  wines  shipped  to  the 
United  States.  The  American  people  drink 
nothing  but  labels."  It  is  scarcely  more  than 
a  year  since  the  German  Government  prose- 
cuted and  imprisoned  the  head  of  a  great  wine 
industry  for  fraud.  It  was  shown  that  his 
product  was  a  pure  fabrication.  But  it  is  still 
being  sold  here  in  large  quantities.  Its  name 
is  on  the  wine  list  of  our  fashionable  restau- 
rants and  hotels,  and  cases  of  it  are  stacked  high 
in  the  windows  of  some  of  our  grocery  stores. 
Connoisseurs,  whose  patrician  palates  cannot 

1  These  statements  and  the  one  following  have  very  re- 
cently been  denied  in  vigorous  language  in  a  communication 
prepared  at  the  instance  of  the  Associated  Wine  Growers  of  Bor- 
deaux. See  the  New  York  Times,  July  17,  1904.  The  fraud 
practised  in  the  preparation  and  labelling  of  French  wines  is 
generally  recognized  to  be  very  great,  though  possibly  the  matter 
has  been  exaggerated. 

198 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

abide  the  flavor  of  a  native  wine,  as  well  as 
those  who  are  not  connoisseurs,  lingeringly  sip 
this  concoction  and  thank  the  Lord  that  their 
tastes  are  not  as  other  men's. 

Of  the  more  than  forty-nine  million  gallons 
of  wines  consumed  in  the  United  States  dur- 
ing the  year  ended  June  30,  1902,  only  a  scant 
five  million,  according  to  government  statistics, 
were  imported.  It  is  even  charged  that  much 
of  this  latter  quantity  had  been  taken  from 
here  to  Europe,  there  drowned  or  sophisticated, 
and  then  brought  back  with  the  added  prestige 
of  a  foreign  name.  However  that  may  be, 
one  gets  no  notion,  from  ordinary  observation, 
of  the  real  ratio  of  consumption  between  native 
and  foreign  wines.  The  eating-place  which 
admits  the  name  of  an  American  product  to 
its  wine  list  is  considered  a  rather  plebeian 
sort  of  place.  German,  French,  Italian,  Hun- 
garian, and  Spanish  names  crowd  the  cards, 
but  one  may  look  in  vain  for  such  titles  as 
Catawba,  Scuppernong,  Angelica,  or  Sonoma. 
It  is  much  the  same  in  the  grocery  stores  that 
cater  to  the  wealthy  and  even  the  middle-class 
trade.  In  the  cheaper  stores  and  restaurants 
are  to  be  found  increasing  stocks  of  native 
wines,  but  it  is  likely  that  the  lower  price, 
rather  than  a  popular  conviction  of  the  superi- 

199 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

ority  of  the  native  product,  is  responsible  for 
the  growing  demand.  The  greater  part  of  the 
wine-drinking  public  still  believes  that  foreign 
wines  are  the  better,  and  that  they  constitute 
the  bulk  of  the  amount  consumed.  And  all 
the  while  the  business  of  the  manufacturer  of 
grafting  labels  undergoes  a  steady  and  opulent 
increase.  Here,  at  least,  one  may  admit  the 
truth  of  Mr.  Bolen's  generalization.  For  under 
the  stress  of  competition  the  fabricated  label 
acquires,  year  by  year,  a  closer  approximation 
to  the  original,  until  it  becomes  difficult  to  dis- 
tinguish them.  That  competition  results  in  the 
"best  and  most  rapidly  improving  supplies" 
may  be  undiscoverable  in  all  other  lines,  but  in 
the  matter  of  grafting  labels  it  can  be  trium- 
phantly shown. 


200 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  REIGN  OF  GRAFT  (Continued} 

IF  there  is  any  branch  of  manufacture  or 
commerce  in  which  grafting  methods  do  not 
obtain,  no  Columbus  of  the  moral  world  has 
yet  discovered  it  and  made  it  known.  In  most 
branches  there  may  be,  and  often  is,  an  honest 
commodity  produced,  and  it  is  sometimes  hon- 
estly sold  without  extravagantly  magnifying 
its  virtues  or  gulling  the  public  into  a  belief 
that  this  particular  thing  is  what  above  all 
others  it  most  needs.  But  in  a  world  of  profit- 
making —  where  goods  are  produced  not  pri- 
marily for  use  but  for  sale  —  the  very  fact  of  a 
stable  commodity  in  the  markets  forces  upon 
the  attention  of  fabricators  the  profitableness 
of  a  substitute,  and  the  substitute  is  generally 
forthcoming.  The  interest  of  the  dealer  is 
made  kin  with  the  interest  of  the  fabricator, 
by  putting  the  price  at  a  figure  which  permits 
not  only  of  ready  sales,  but  of  larger  profits 
than  are  made  from  the  original  commodity. 

20 1 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

In  furnishing  this  substitute,  wholesaler,  re- 
tailer, and  salesman — even  advertising  agent 
and  window  dresser  —  are  inevitably  made  par- 
ticipants in  an  extended  process  of  graft. 
"  There  are  tricks  in  all  trades,"  we  commonly 
say,  and  no  one  has  arisen  to  point  out  an 
exception.  From  the  peanut-vender  on  the 
street  corner  to  the  heads  of  the  gas  trust, 
grafting  methods  range  in  a  vast  series  of  gra- 
dations, qualified,  as  a  general  thing,  only  by 
the  degree  which  the  particular  traffic  will 
bear. 

So  much  applies  only  to  what  may  be  called 
commodity  graft.  But  the  genius  of  graft  mani- 
fests itself  in  nearly  all  branches  of  human 
activity.  Wherever  something  can  be  got  for 
nothing,  wherever  a  pinch  or  a  squeeze  of  extra 
profit  can  be  made  in  a  transaction,  wherever 
falsehood  can  be  made  to  do  duty  for  truth,  or 
pretence  for  accomplishment  or  service,  there 
is  observed  a  metamorphosis  of  the  protean 
genius  of  graft.  Not  in  all  men,  be  it  under- 
stood, is  this  manifestation  made ;  for  in  all 
times,  and  perhaps  in  all  places,  there  is  that 
remnant  which  is  led,  whether  by  instinct  or 
consciousness,  to  ignore  the  narrower  interests 
of  individual  or  class,  and  to  act  in  accord  with 
the  wider  interests  of  the  race.  But  in  all 

202 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

classes,  in  all  kinds  of  human  activity,  the 
greater  number  of  men  are  necessarily  con- 
trolled by  their  economic  interest  and  function. 
They  cannot  escape  from  that  control  any  more 
readily  than  the  bondsman  can  escape  from 
slavery.  No  underground  railway,  manned  by 
eager  abolitionists,  assists  them  to  an  ethical 
freedom.  They  are,  as  a  mass,  helplessly  bound 
to  the  prevailing  system  of  industry,  and  what 
that  system  demands  of  them  they  must  do  or 
perish.  The  frontiers  of  human  ingenuity  are 
thus  constantly  pushed  forward  in  devising 
new  processes  of  graft  or  in  applying  old  pro- 
cesses to  new  conditions.  There  is  small  graft 
and  there  is  large  graft,  differing  only  as  petty 
larceny  differs  from  grand  larceny.  In  the 
pettiest,  as  in  the  most  important  acts ;  in  some 
miserable  swindle  for  a  few  copper  cents,  as  in 
some  legislative  or  congressional  "grab"  in- 
volving millions  of  dollars;  in  the  blatant 
platitudes  of  some  pastoral  servitor  of  the 
trading  class  and  in  the  soothing  narcotics  of 
some  ofBcial  economist,  are  alike  revealed  the 
insistent  spirit  of  graft. 

The  increasing  use  of  the  word  "  graft "  by 
men  in  all  classes  is  of  itself  proof  of  the  growth 
of  a  wider  social  consciousness.  For  it  means 
a  growing  recognition,  though  not  necessarily 

203 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

an  acceptance,  throughout  society,  of  that  prime 
ethic  of  the  producing  classes  —  the  ethic  of 
usefulness,  with  its  implied  requirement  of  a 
just  return  for  what  is  received.  A  great  num- 
ber of  actions  which  once  were  regarded  as 
legitimate  come  now  to  be  regarded,  however 
vaguely,  as  at  least  questionable.  Yet  such  is 
the  strength  of  that  ethical  dualism  which  we 
inherit  from  our  primitive  ancestors  that  we 
are  led  unerringly  to  distinguish  between  two 
kinds  of  questionable  actions.  There  is  "  hon- 
est "  graft  —  the  kind  which  our  class  interest 
and  function  make  necessary  or  profitable  for 
us,  and  which  we  levy  upon  persons  not  of  our 
class ;  and  there  is  "  crooked  "  graft  —  the  frat- 
ricidal sort  which  is  mutually  regarded  within 
class  lines  as  ruinous,  and  which  even  "  thieves' 
honor  "  forbids.  The  grocer  who  unloads  upon 
an  unsuspecting  public  a  baking  powder  con- 
taining 30  per  cent,  of  pulverized  rock,  or 
fruit-spreads  made  of  refuse;  or  the  druggist 
who  sells  acetanilid  for  phenacetin,  or  wood 
alcohol  for  grain  alcohol,  indulges  in  "  honest " 
graft,  as  that  term  is  understood  by  many  of 
his  fellows.  But  he  who  slights  or  breaks  an 
agreement  with  a  fellow-trader  becomes  a  vio- 
lator of  class  honor,  and  thereby  an  enemy 
of  society,  religion,  and  the  state.  Our  class 

204 


THE   REIGN   OF  GRAFT 

interest  and  function  determine  our  conduct, 
and  though  with  the  growth  of  a  general  social 
consciousness  we  come  to  a  clearer  recognition 
of  questionable  acts,  our  class  conscience  still 
sanctions  the  things  we  find  it  necessary  —  or 
in  general,  profitable — to  do.  The  eternal  con- 
flict between  Ormuzd  and  Ahrimanes  thus 
takes  on,  in  modern  society,  an  altered  form. 
Though  the  cocle  of  the  dominant  class  —  the 
traders  —  with  its  ethic  of  deception,  strongly 
influences  the  ethics  of  all  society,  the  measure 
of  that  influence  is  qualified  by  the  awakening 
of  the  producer  consciousness,  with  its  funda- 
mental ethic  of  usefulness.  And  though  under 
the  stress  of  class  needs  as  well  as  by  insensible 
imitation  of  the  practices  of  the  dominant  class 
the  units  of  the  subordinate  classes  practice 
graft,  they  come  slowly  to  know  it  for  what  it 
is.  Out  of  that  growing  recognition,  due  to 
the  acceptance  of  the  ethic  of  usefulness  by 
increasing  numbers  of  men,  must  come  a  large 
part  of  the  ethical  progress  of  the  world. 


The  manifestations  of  petty  graft  multiply 
like  bacteria  in  gelatin.  A  single  bacillus 
planted  in  some  favorable  culture  produces,  in 

205 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

brief  time,  millions  of  its  kind.  The  estimable 
Mr.  Edward  Bok,  of  the  Ladies  Home  Journal, 
discovered,  on  his  recent  visit  to  New  York 
City,  that  the  metropolis  is  a  most  favorable 
culture-ground  for  this  microbe.  Some  of  his 
experiences,  as  summarized  in  Harpers  Weekly, 
were  as  follows :  — 

A  railroad  cabman  wanted  85  cents  for  bringing  him 
to  his  hotel;  proper  charge  35  cents.  The  hotel 
news  stand  wanted  10  cents  fora  newspaper  ;  proper 
charge  3  cents.  Fee  to  waiter  for  dinner,  1 5  cents ; 
waiter  grumbled  and  was  reported.  Cab  to  the 
theatre,  charge  $2;  proper  charge  $i.  For  100 
violets,  charge  $8 ;  paid  $4.  Theatre,  all  seats  sold  ; 
referred  to  speculators ;  summoned  manager  and  got 
two  excellent  seats  forthwith.  Cab  back  to  hotel, 
charge  $2.50 ;  paid  $i.  Crackers  and  milk  for  lunch, 
charge  60  cents ;  appeal  to  manager ;  paid  20  cents. 
An  antique  shop  wanted  $75  for  a  bogus  Delft  plate  ; 
protest;  plate  reduced  to  $3.  Five-dollar  andirons 
offered  to  visitor  for  $40.  Worked-over  print  offered 
him  as  original  drawing.  For  haircut  and  shampoo, 
charge  $i ;  paid  60  cents.  For  moving  trunks,  charge 
$1.50;  paid  50  cents.  Hack  to  ferry,  charge  $2.50; 
paid  $1.25. 

These  were  not  all  his  experiences,  as  his 
published  account  abundantly  testifies.  But 
they  were  enough  to  indicate  to  him  that  petty 
graft  flourishes  on  the  island  of  Manhattan. 

206 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

That  he  has  published  nothing  regarding  simi- 
lar practices  in  the  neighboring  city  by  the 
Delaware  is  but  another  proof  of  that  ethical 
dualism  which  blinds  us  to  home  graft  and 
sharpens  our  seeing  of  the  alien  kind.  For  if 
recorded  observations  of  disinterested  persons 
count  for  anything,  Philadelphia  must  be  placed 
high  on  the  list  of  grafting  communities.  It  is 
so  merely  by  reason  of  its  being  a  great  city, 
where  millions  of  commercial  and  industrial 
transactions  take  place  yearly.  Difficult,  and 
perhaps  impossible,  is  the  attempt  to  prove 
fundamental  differences  of  character  in  the 
citizenship  of  one  American  city  from  that  of 
another.  Graft  is  no  respecter  of  locality,  race, 
color,  or  condition  of  servitude.  It  obtains  in 
all  places  where  the  struggle  for  individual  ad- 
vantage is  carried  on ;  and  it  is  greatest  where 
the  struggle  is  fiercest  and  where  the  transac- 
tions are  most  numerous. 

Petty  graft,  though  no  respecter  of  persons, 
has  doubtless  its  most  characteristic  victims  in 
the  poor.  The  tipping  graft  is  of  course  an 
exception,  for  it  is  levied  mainly  upon  the  well- 
to-do  ;  but  it  is  an  exception  whose  singularity 
confirms  the  rule.  Adulterated  foods  are  partic- 
ularly directed  at  the  poor,  as  are  also  shoddy 
cloths,  short-measure  threads,  collapsible  furni- 

207 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

ture,  and  a  long  list  of  debased  commodities  in 
various  lines.  In  the  same  class  belong  the 
grafting  practices  of  the  "  loan  sharks,"  storage 
warehouse  extortioners,  instalment  swindlers, 
and  miscellaneous  parasites  in  and  out  of  regu- 
lar establishments,  who  batten  on  the  flesh  and 
blood  of  the  unfortunate.  Here,  too,  is  to  be 
included  the  graft  levied  upon  work-people  by 
manufacturers  in  the  parasitic  trades  —  such  as 
artificial  flower  making  and  children's  garment 
making  —  who  almost  invariably  make  large 
deductions  from  wages  on  trumped  up  charges 
of  "  spoiled  work  "  and  "  late  delivery,"  a  swin- 
dle from  which  there  is  no  appeal. 

The  rapacious  fines  levied  upon  employees  in 
the  great  department  stores  are  of  the  same 
class.  The  graft  of  the  quack  physicians  is 
also  an  enormous  tax  on  the  poor,  and  another, 
yet  more  heavy,  is  that  of  the  army  of  merce- 
naries, with  things  to  sell  and  schemes  for 
investment,  who  descend  on  the  workshops  of 
the  land  on  pay-days.  "  When  labor  has  its 
hard-earned  wages  in  hand,"  says  a  recent  writer 
in  the  Atlantic,  "an  army  of  buzzards  and 
vultures  springs  out  of  the  earth,  drops  out 
of  empty  space,  gathers  from  the  four  winds,  to 
batten  on  their  natural  prey.  An  increase  of 
wages,  which  is  often  so  bitterly  fought  for,  is 

208 


THE   REIGN   OF  GRAFT 

of  little  real  advantage  while  the  sumpter  class 
hovers  so  close  with  avid  maw,  eagle  eye,  and 
dexterous  talons."  *  Though  the  state  oc- 
casionally intervenes,  though  a  public-spirited 
body  like  the  Legal  Aid  Society  and  a  public- 
spirited  attorney  like  Mr.  Lewis  Stuyvesant 
Chanler  interpose  some  barriers  in  defence  of 
the  poor,  petty  graft  still  abides  with  us.  Con- 
victed grafters  may  languish  temporarily  in 
jail,  and  dead  grafters  may  moulder  in  the  ground, 
but  the  eternal  soul  of  graft  goes  marching  on. 
One  of  the  worst  forms  of  petty  graft,  which 
was  just  developing  into  an  established  business 
in  New  York  City  when  the  state  unkindly 
intervened,  was  the  "  fake  "  instalment  trade.' 
The  matter  has  been  made  the  subject  of  a 
careful  study  and  an  excellent  report  2  by  Mr. 
Henry  R.  Mussey,  now  an  instructor  in  political 
economy  in  Columbia  University.  This  graft 
was  practised  principally  on  the  poor  and  igno- 
rant Italians  of  the  East  Side.  A  watch  or  a 
bit  of  jewellery  would  be  delivered  to  the  victim 
on  his  making  a  small  cash  payment  and  sign- 
ing a  contract  to  pay  in  instalments  a  sum  three 

1  Jocelyn    Lewis,  article  on  "  An   Educated  Wage-earner," 
Atlantic  Monthly,  January,  1904. 

2  Published  by  the  University  Settlement  Society,  New  York 


209 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

or  four  times  what  the  article  was  really  worth. 
The  contract  would  often  afterward  be  altered 
in  any  way  suiting  the  convenience  or  the  fancy 
of  the  dealer.  On  a  default  in  payment,  the 
buyer  would  be  summoned  to  court,  and  on  his 
failure  to  appear,  a  body  execution  would  be 
issued  against  him,  and  a  squad  of  mercenaries, 
including  a  city  marshal,  would  descend  upon 
him  and  compel  him  or  his  friends  and  relatives 
to  disgorge  the  full  amount  named  in  the  con- 
tract, with  legal  costs  added.  The  default  in 
payment,  it  should  be  understood,  was  often,  if 
not  usually,  due  to  the  dealer.  "Though  the 
purchaser  may  be  perfectly  ready  to  make  his 
payments,"  wrote  Mr.  Mussey,  "  no  one  appears 
to  collect  them."  It  was  to  the  dealer's  interest 
that  payment  should  be  defaulted,  so  that  by  a 
legal  action  he  could  compel  a  disgorgement  of 
the  entire  amount.  It  was  also  to  his  interest 
that  the  summonses  should  not  really  be  served 
—  and  usually  they  were  not.  The  marshals 
were  in  collusion  with  the  dealers,  and  so,  it 
appears,  was  at  least  one  judge.  The  extent  of 
this  graft  may  be  estimated  by  Mr.  Mussey 's 
statement  that  one-sixth  of  all  the  cases  trans- 
acted in  the  three  East  Side  courts  (probably 
for  the  year  1901)  were  instalment  cases,  and 
that  of  697  body  executions  issued  by  municipal 

210 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

courts  in  1900,  594  were  of  this  class.  So  cry- 
ing an  evil  did  this  graft  become  that  the 
Albany  Solons  were  persuaded  into  the  enact- 
ment of  a  law  abolishing  body  executions  for 
small  debts. 

The  "loan  shark"  graft  is  another  which 
recently  developed  to  unendurable  dimensions, 
and  thereby  brought  down  upon  itself  the  iron 
hand  of  the  law.  Of  the  rapacity  of  these 
grafters  the  tales  told  by  victims  to  Assistant 
District  Attorney  Kressel,  of  New  York  County, 
in  January  and  February  of  this  year,  are  al- 
most incredible.  Once  in  their  power,  the 
victim  had  small  chance  of  escape.  The  bor- 
rower in  one  case  was  compelled  to  pay  $31.50 
interest  on  a  loan  of  $19.75.  Another  paid  $36 
on  a  loan  of  $25.  Another,  after  paying  back 
a  loan  of  $25,  with  $15  interest,  had  his  entire 
stock  of  furniture,  including  his  baby's  cradle, 
seized  for  default  in  further  payments,  and  was 
told  he  was  still  indebted  to  the  lender  in  the 
sum  of  $16.50.  These  "  loan  sharks  "  had  been 
operating  for  years,  and  their  exactions  had 
grown  constantly  greater,  in  spite  of  the  com- 
petition among  them  for  business ;  but  it  was 
not  until  the  beginning  of  the  present  year  that 
any  serious  steps  were  taken  to  deal  with  them. 
When  attacked,  they  prepared  to  resist,  and 

211 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

according  to  a  statement  in  the  World  of  Feb- 
ruary 4,  raised  a  defence  fund  of  $2500,  agreeing 
to  swell  this  amount  to  $25,000  if  needed.  It 
does  not  appear  that  the  fund  was  used.  On  Feb- 
ruary 9  the  announcement  was  made  from  the 
District  Attorney's  office  that  the  "  loan  sharks  " 
had  been  practically  driven  from  New  York  City. 
The  various  employment  agencies  of  a  great 
city  are  an  effective  machine  for  levying  petty 
graft  on  the  poor,  and  they  have  recently  been 
charged  with  much  graver  offences.  A  thor- 
ough investigation  by  a  social  reform  body  in 
New  York  City  revealed  evidences,  as  a  writer 
declares  in  a  recent  issue  of  Charities,  that 
through  these  agencies,  ten  thousand  girls  are 
annually  lured  into  houses  of  ill-fame.1  The 
state  has  several  times  intervened  to  correct 
the  grosser  evils  of  these  bureaus,  and  has 
even  established  a  state  bureau  in  the  metropo- 
lis, but  the  indomitable  spirit  of  graft  has,  in 
this  instance,  so  far  withstood  assault.  The 
quack-doctor  graft  has  also  successfully  re- 
sisted attack.  The  infallible  curers  of  consump- 
tion and  restorers  of  lost  vitality  are  still  busy 
and  opulent.  The  recent  investigation  and 
published  report  of  the  Charity  Organization 
Society  of  New  York  City  on  the  consumption- 

1  Frances  Kellor,  Charities,  February  6,  1904. 
212 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

cure  graft  was  thought  by  many  persons  to 
be  the  prelude  to  the  complete  annihilation  of 
this  swindle.  These  expectations  have  not 
been  fulfilled.  With  that  sublime  audacity, 
energy,  ingenuity,  and  initiative  which  our 
ethical  teachers  and  economists  tell  us  always 
bring  their  rightful  reward  under  the  competi- 
tive system,  these  therapists  have  extracted  from 
the  Charity  report  the  denunciatory  passages, 
transformed  them  into  commendations,  and  sown 
them  broadcast.  As  a  consequence,  the  curer 
of  consumption  still  sits  at  the  receipt  of  custom, 
and  enjoys  the  fruits  of  his  superior  abilities. 

Of  the  graft,  petty  in  particular  incidence, 
but  enormous  in  the  mass,  which  is  constantly 
levied  about  the  police  and  municipal  courts 
of  a  great  city  by  a  crowd  of  "  shyster  "  attor- 
neys, attendants,  marshals,  furnishers  of  "  straw  " 
bail  and  unofficial  parasites,  sometimes  in  col- 
lusion with  the  magistrate  or  judge,  it  would 
be  idle  to  attempt  to  speak  in  this  place.  A 
generous  volume  would  be  required  to  deal 
with  the  subject  properly.  The  administration 
of  justice  in  the  average  police  court  and  lower 
civil  court  of  a  great  city  —  whether  it  be  in 
New  York,  Chicago,  or  Philadelphia  —  is  ad- 
mitted by  all  competent  observers  to  be  a 
standing  disgrace  to  civilization.  The  moral 

213 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

life  of  the  poor  is  constantly  poisoned  in  these 
places,  where  they  come  most  closely  in  contact 
with  the  state ;  and  whatever  naturally  developed 
ideas  of  justice  they  may  have,  are  soon  purged 
from  them  in  these  earthly  infernos. 

It  will  be  impossible  also  to  dwell  at  length 
in  this  place  upon  the  various  forms  of  minor 
commercial  graft,  such  as  trademark  and  label 
imitation,  which  persist  in  spite  of  laws  and 
prosecutions ;  the  short-thread  graft,  which  has 
been  within  the  last  few  months  the  subject  of 
a  new  law  in  New  York,  and  the  shoddy  graft, 
which  reaches  its  greatest  distinction  in  Amer- 
ica—  that  land  of  the  free  and  home  of  the 
cheap  coat.  Mere  mention  only  can  be  made 
of  the  flourishing  diploma  graft,  by  which  aspir- 
ing but  unindustrious  youths  are  enabled  to 
get  sheepskins  certifying  to  their  proficiency  in 
any  desired  calling ;  of  the  "  Paris-gown  "  graft, 
which  has  recently  been  the  subject  of  a  formal 
protest  by  the  Women's  Garment  Makers' 
International  Union;  of  the  "twisting"  graft 
in  life  insurance  —  the  practice,  until  lately 
generally  indulged  in  by  agents,  of  selling  poli- 
cies in  their  own  company  to  take  the  place 
of  policies  already  taken  out  in  other  compa- 
nies, and  lastly  of  the  claim  graft  levied  by 
small  traders  upon  fire  insurance  companies. 

214 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

The  extent  of  this  last-named  graft  may  be 
judged  from  the  recent  estimate  of  Assist- 
ant District  Attorney  Garvan,  of  New  York 
County,  that  from  30  to  40  per  cent  of  all 
claims  for  losses  at  fires  involving  damages  of 
$10,000  or  less,  were  fraudulent. 

It  would  not  be  so  utterly  bad  —  there  would 
still  be  a  glimmer  of  light  in  at  least  one  direc- 
tion —  if  it  were  not  that  many  among  a  cer- 
tain class  of  our  professed  representatives,  the 
daily  newspapers,  catching  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  show  the  same  propensity  to  graft 
Any  one  who  studies  the  legends  on  the  vari- 
ous evening  editions  of  the  dailies  must  wonder 
at  the  impudence  of  the  attempted  deception. 
There  are  "6  o'clock"  editions  published  at 
noon,  "latest  evening"  editions  at  n  A.M., 
and  "  10  o'clock"  editions  at  6.  The  bucolic 
reader  in  Podunk,  R.I.,  or  in  Culex,  N.J., 
who  at  6  or  7  o'clock  gets  a  paper  printed 
at  ii  in  the  morning,  but  purporting  to  be 
a  "latest  evening,"  is  flattered  into  believing 
that  for  his  benefit  the  newspaper  manager 
has  annihilated  time  and  space,  and  given  him 
his  news  almost  with  the  speed  of  the  tele- 
graph. This  is  but  one,  however,  of  the  many 
grafts  which  up-to-date  journalism  practises  upon 
the  public.  The  fake-portrait  graft  in  our  illus- 

215 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

trated  dailies  is  one  of  the  pettiest  and  most 
impudent  swindles  of  the  time.  One  may  see 
the  same  countenance  and  figure  doing  duty 
over  and  over  again,  now  for  a  poor  girl  robbed 
of  her  savings,  now  for  an  eloping  bride,  and 
now  for  the  heroine  of  some  desperate  adven- 
ture in  the  Balkans.  Perhaps  four-fifths  of  all 
the  illustrations,  both  of  persons  and  of  scenes, 
appearing  in  the  daily  newspapers  of  New 
York  City,  are  pure  swindles,  purporting  to  be 
something  which  they  are  not.  Circulation 
claims,  upon  which  advertising  is  secured,  con- 
stitute another  common  form  of  journalistic 
graft,  and  claims,  often  quite  as  pretentious  and 
absurd,  of  exclusive  agency  in  the  securing  of 
certain  legislative  or  administrative  reforms, 
another.  But  the  great  graft  of  all  is  the  news 
graft.  Of  the  manner  in  which  news  is  pruned 
or  doctored  to  suit  the  prejudices  of  a  particular 
constituency,  or  in  which  it  is  made  up  to  create 
a  sensation,  there  is  not  room  here  fittingly  to 
speak.  A  chapter,  at  least,  would  be  necessary 
for  even  an  outline  of  the  subject. 

II 

Instances  of  the  larger  forms  of  commercial 
graft    may   be   studied    to    advantage   in    Mr. 

216 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

Henry  George's  series  of  articles  on  "  Modern 
Methods  of  *  Finance,' "  appearing  in  Pearsons 
Magazine.  The  steel,  shipbuilding,  and  as- 
phalt concerns,  and  the  wrecking  of  the  Third 
Avenue  Railway  Company,  are  treated  therein 
to  a  careful  analysis.  Miss  Tarbell's  History 
of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  which  appeared 
in  McClures  Magazine,  and  Mr.  Thomas  W. 
Lawson's  series"  of  articles  on  "  Frenzied  Fi- 
nance," now  appearing  in  Everybody's  Magazine, 
will  also  prove  helpful.  There  are  many  other 
enormous  grafts.  The  particular  graft  of  the 
Whiskey  Trust,  otherwise  the  American  Spirits 
Manufacturing  Company,  that  of  wrecking  sub- 
sidiary companies  to  the  great  profit  of  the 
officials,  was  revealed  to  the  public  through 
proceedings  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  New 
York  last  April.  In  the  previous  December 
the  Salt  Trust  came  up  in  Part  I  of  the  same 
court  for  an  overhauling.  An  application  had 
been  made  to  confirm  the  sale  of  five  salt  plants 
made  by  the  National  Salt  Company  to  the 
International  Salt  Company.  The  application 
was  opposed  on  the  ground  of  fraud  and  collu- 
sion between  the  officers  of  the  two  companies, 
and  the  decision  of  Justice  Leventritt  supported 
the  charges.  "  The  terms  of  the  sale,"  he  de- 
clared, "  and  the  manner  of  their  procurement, 

217 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

the  methods  of  the  sale  and  the  manner  of  bid- 
ding, and  the  gross  and  patent  inadequacy  of 
the  price  realized,  combine  to  shock  the  con- 
science of  the  court,  precluding  any  affirmative 
act  of  approval  on  its  part."  Grafting  methods 
were  shown  in  the  selling  as  well  as  in  the 
financing  operations  of  this  company.  A  par- 
ticular brand  of  salt,  of  great  professed  purity, 
and  selling  at  a  high  price,  was  laughingly  ad- 
mitted on  the  stand  to  have  "  come  out  of  the 
same  kettle  "  as  the  supposedly  inferior  brands. 
The  wrecking  of  the  Trust  Company  of  the 
Republic  and  of  the  Federal  Bank  are  still 
fresh  in  the  public  memory,  and  yet  more  re- 
cent have  been  the  revelations  regarding  the 
long-continued  poolroom  graft  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  and  of  the  local 
telephone  company.  High  and  low,  near  and 
far,  throughout  the  range  of  business,  the  opera- 
tion of  graft  would  seem  to  wait  solely  upon 
opportunity. 

Testimony  regarding  the  increasing  number 
of  grafting  corporations  in  the  cities  is  given 
by  Mr.  Alger  in  a  recent  number  of  the 
Atlantic:  — 

"  It  seems  quite  apparent  that  there  is  in  the  great 
cities  a  constantly  increasing  volume  of  business  done 
which  is  either  fundamentally  fraudulent,  or  which 

218 


THE   REIGN   OF   GRAFT 

depends  upon  fraudulent  means  for  the  large  financial 
success  which  it  often  obtains.  Take,  for  example, 
the  Sunday  edition  of  almost  any  great  metropolitan 
newspaper  and  study  its  advertising  columns.  Leav- 
ing out  of  account  the  department  store  announce- 
ments and  the  want  columns,  consider  what  a  large 
part  of  the  remaining  advertisements  bear  the  mark 
of  almost  obvious  fraud.  During  the  past  few  flush 
years  these  papers  have  been  crowded  with  alluring 
advertisements  of 'corporations  with  enormous  capitali- 
zation, whose  stock  is  issued,  generally  in  small  de- 
nominations, to  place  it  within  the  reach  of  '  small 
investors ' :  tempting  gold  and  copper  mines  for  the 
discontented  janitress  and  ambitious  elevator  man, 
corporations  with  new  processes  and  machinery  to 
revolutionize  the  manufacture  of  household  articles 
or  necessities,  corporations  exploiting  startling  inven- 
tions calculated,  on  paper,  to  reverse  the  ways  of 
commerce.  An  investigation  would  probably  show 
that  a  majority  of  these  companies  are  created  solely 
for  the  purpose  of  selling  stock,  and  without  the  slight- 
est intention  on  the  part  of  their  promoters  or  officers 
of  doing  any  legitimate  business  with  the  money 
acquired.  During  the  Klondike  fever  a  few  years 
ago  corporations  of  this  kind  were  born  daily  in  New 
Jersey  and  West  Virginia,  with  enormous  paper  capi- 
tal, with  a  reasonable  sprinkling  of  respectability  in 
their  directorates,  and  with  glittering  prospectuses, 
compared  to  which  the  South  Sea  Bubble  was  both 
honest  and  conservative.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
of  the  dozens  of  these  highly  advertised  companies, 

219 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

organized  to  sell  stock  and  work  the  gold  mine  of  pub- 
lic credulity,  there  is  one  in  active  existence  to-day." l 

Unpunishable,  or  at  best  but  lightly  punish- 
able, as  Mr.  Alger  laments,  is  most  of  this  kind 
of  commercial  crime.  And  yet  the  traders, 
being  dominant  in  legislation,  in  administra- 
tion, and  in  judicial  interpretation,  could,  if 
they  seriously  desired,  punish  it  severely. 
They  do  not,  and  for  good  cause.  Though 
much  of  it  is  of  a  character  that  calls  forth 
only  censure  from  "honest"  traders,  yet  the 
trading-class  interest  is  ever  reluctant  to  set 
bars  to  individual  initiative.  Each  feels  that 
a  restrictive  law  may  somewhere,  at  some  in- 
opportune time,  invade  his  own  liberties,  and 
he  is  thus  willing  to  permit  the  continuance 
of  grosser  forms  of  graft  than  his  conscience 
will  sanction. 

Ill 

Graft  flourishes  probably  at  its  best  where 
business  touches  government.  The  prizes  are 
large,  and  they  are  eagerly  pursued  alike  by 
the  seekers  of  privilege  and  the  sellers  of  com- 
modities. Despite  the  reiterated  assertions  of 
the  retainers,  eager  to  extol  the  blessings  of 

1  George  W.  Alger,  article  on  "  Unpunished  Commercial 
Crime,"  Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1904. 

22O 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

private  ownership  and  operation,  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  government  of  itself  —  that  is, 
public  service  uninfluenced  by  outside  interest 
—  is,  on  the  whole,  far  more  honestly  admin- 
istered than  is  private  business.  The  kinds 
of  graft  that  are  constant  and  universal  in  the 
buying  and  selling  transactions  of  private  busi- 
ness, are  but  local  and  occasional  in  public 
business;  while- as  for  thefts  and  conversions 
in  the  one  service  as  against  the  other,  there 
is  no  reasonable  comparison.  The  March 
number  of  The  Bulletin  of  the  Fidelity  and 
Casualty  Company  shows,  for  instance,  that 
of  embezzlements  and  defalcations  throughout 
the  country  for  the  month  of  December,  1903, 
amounting  to  $2,072,508,  only  #7368,  or  three- 
tenths  of  one  per  cent.,  was  due  to  federal  and 
state  employees,  and  but  #8587,  or  four-tenths 
of  one  per  cent,  to  municipal  employees.  The 
remaining  99.3  per  cent,  was  taken  by  employ- 
ees—  including  the  holders  of  trust  funds  — 
in  private  business. 

But,  as  Mr.  Steffens  has  shown  in  his  valu- 
able, though  somewhat  belated  discovery, 
when  private  business  comes  in  contact  with 
government,  the  almost  inevitable  result  is 
graft.  Untouched  by  other  than  the  ordinary 
temptations  of  life,  the  public  official  is  usually 

221 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

honest,  and  is  very  often  —  even  under  the 
present  individualist  code  of  ethics  —  buoyed 
up  by  a  sense  of  public  duty  which  prompts 
him  to  do  his  work  faithfully  and  well.  But 
all  about  him  business  spreads  its  snares,  offer- 
ing, if  he  has  anything  worth  buying,  the 
richest  prizes  for  delinquency  to  his  trust.  If 
he  is  an  alderman  or  an  assemblyman,  he  can 
be  useful  in  aiding  to  vote  a  franchise  or  to 
defeat  a  regulative  bill;  if  a  congressman,  he 
may  be  still  more  valuable  in  legislative  mat- 
ters, and  able,  moreover,  to  push  business 
before  the  departments.  If  an  administrator 
or  judge,  he  has  yet  another  scope  of  useful- 
ness. Against  all  of  these,  against  pettier 
officials  as  well,  against  all  in  the  public  ser- 
vice who  have  anything  to  grant  which  busi- 
ness wants,  a  more  or  less  constant  pressure 
is  directed.  It  may  be  remotely  indirect. 
The  official  may  be  wholly  removed  from 
contact  with  the  privilege-seeker  or  the  com- 
modity-seller ;  the  pressure  may  be  exerted 
through  social,  political,  or  ecclesiastical  chan- 
nels ;  it  may  be  exerted  solely  through  a  boss, 
himself  the  direct  mediary  with  the  business 
interest.  But  however  exerted,  it  is  forceful 
and  constant,  and  often  impossible  to  resist. 
It  is  doubtless  in  the  municipal  governments 
222 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

that  graft  upon  the  public  service  is  most  con- 
spicuously shown.  For  here  individual,  firm, 
and  corporation  come  in  closest  contact  with 
the  public  service.  Of  individual  grafters  the 
tax  dodger  is  perhaps  the  most  striking  exam- 
ple ;  and  the  total  loss  to  government  from  this 
source  is  enormous.  It  has  been  estimated 
that  the  public  loss  from  tax  dodging  in  New 
York  City  averaged  $20,000,000  a  year  be- 
tween 1898  and  1900.  Far  more  extensive 
is  the  corporation  graft.  Most  of  the  larger 
municipalities  have  great  powers  for  giving  or 
withholding  valuable  privileges,  and  can  exer- 
cise wide  discretion  in  administering  the  laws. 
Business  will  have  its  own  —  or  what  it  claims 
for  its  own;  and  the  revelations  regarding 
graft  in  a  number  of  our  greater  municipalities, 
that  from  time  to  time  are  made,  are  instruc- 
tive alike  on  the  character  of  these  claims  and 
the  methods  for  securing  them.  New  York, 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Pittsburg,  Philadelphia, 
Cincinnati,  Minneapolis,  Boston,  New  Orleans, 
Detroit,  and  Grand  Rapids  have  all  been  held 
up  to  the  wondering  gaze  of  the  public,  and 
all,  allowing  for  certain  differing  particulars, 
show  much  the  same  story. 

From  the  municipalities  to  the  state  is  but 
a  step.     The  St.   Louis  circle  of  grafters  ex- 

223 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

tended  their  power  to  the  legislature  and  to 
the  courts,  and  through  these  they  controlled 
the  city  and  the  state.  "  Laws  have  been  sold," 
declares  the  presentment  of  a  St.  Louis  grand 
jury  handed  down  on  May  29  of  the  present 
year,  "  to  the  highest  bidder  in  numerous  in- 
stances that  we  have  evidence  of.  Senators 
have  been  on  the  pay-roll  of  lobbyists  and 
served  special  interests  instead  of  the  public 
good.  It  is  time  that  the  people  should  be 
awakened  to  the  awful  condition  of  things  in 
their  general  assembly." 

Missouri  has  by  no  means  a  peculiar  distinc- 
tion in  this  matter.  If  there  is  any  one  of  the 
forty-five  states  of  the  Union  in  which  graft  on 
the  public  service  is  unknown,  the  fact  has  not 
yet  been  published  to  the  world.  There  are, 
however,  differences  of  degree ;  and  some  five 
or  six  of  the  states  seem  to  have  reached  an 
eminence  in  grafting  not  yet  attained  by  their 
rivals.  The  latest  session  of  the  New  York 
Legislature  was  generally  considered  to  have 
been  the  most  corrupt  session  since  the  days 
of  Tweed.  The  corporations  closed  in  upon 
Albany,  with  a  consequence  that  bills  of  the 
sort  popularly  known  as  "  grabs  "  were  passed 
in  blocks.  An  equal  distinction  applies  to  the 
latest  session  of  the  New  Jersey  Legislature. 

224 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRAFT 

An  open  letter,  published  on  March  24  of  the 
present  year,  written  by  the  mayor  of  Jersey 
City,  who  is  a  member  of  the  political  party 
which  controlled  this  legislature,  declares  that 
"  its  record  on  the  whole  is  bad,  and  in  some 
respects  disgraceful.  Its  control  by  corporate 
interests,  in  the  assembly  at  least,  has  been 
absolute."  Pennsylvania  long  ago  acquired 
its  more  or  less  estimable  character  in  this 
respect,  and  has  so  well  and  so  evenly  sus- 
tained it  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  say  of  any 
session  of  its  legislature  that  it  was  worse  or 
better  than  its  predecessor.  Illinois  has  for 
many  years  enjoyed  a  somewhat  similar  reputa- 
tion, and  from  recent  disclosures  it  would  ap- 
pear that  Wisconsin  has  developed  ambitions 
to  rival  its  sister  states.  Colorado,  too,  must 
not  be  forgotten.  A  mandatory  constitutional 
amendment  requiring  the  legislature  to  enact 
an  eight-hour  law  was  recently,  at  the  com- 
mand of  certain  corporations,  entirely  disre- 
garded ;  and  the  executive  department  of  the 
state  has  since  then  hired  out  the  militia  to 
the  same  corporations,  for  money  actually  ad- 
vanced by  them.  Least  among  the  common- 
wealths, but  by  no  means  last  with  respect  to 
grafting,  is  Rhode  Island.  A  series  of  articles 
published  in  the  New  York  Evening  Post  dur- 
Q  225 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

ing  March,  1903,  gives  something  of  the  story 
of  this  wretched  satrapy.  It  is  a  state  owned, 
soul  and  structure,  by  a  few  corporations,  with 
a  United  States  Senator  as  executive  manager. 
From  the  state  capitals  to  Washington  is 
but  another  step.  The  secret  relations  be- 
tween business  and  government  are  plainly 
indicated  in  a  great  deal  of  congressional 
action ;  but  it  is  only  under  extraordinary  cir- 
cumstances that  the  individual  transactions  of 
congressmen  with  business  interests  become 
known,  and  we  are  treated  to  spectacles  such 
as  the  trials  of  two  United  States  Senators  and 
a  former  Representative  for  grafting,  while  at 
the  same  time  a  great  number  of  congressmen 
in  both  houses  are  formally  charged  in  an  offi- 
cial report  with  grafting  on  the  postal  service. 
The  pension  system  has  long  been  a  favored 
field  for  congressional  grafting,  and  the  rail- 
way mail  service  another.  When  one  consid- 
ers that  some  $38,000,000,  or  about  one-fourth 
of  the  total  revenues  of  the  Post-office  Depart- 
ment, is  yearly  paid  to  the  railroads  for  hauling 
mail;  that  the  rate  per  ton  per  mile  is  about 
twenty-five  times  as  much  as  that  for  freight, 
and  that  the  yearly  rental  paid  for  each  mail 
car  is  considerably  greater  than  the  cost  of  the 
car,  he  may  understand  how  valuable  must  •  be 

226 


THE   REIGN   OF  GRAFT 

the  graft  involved  in  this  service.  Even  petty 
graft  is  not  beneath  congressional  dignity. 
The  bill  introduced  by  Representative  Gillett, 
of  Massachusetts,  in  February  of  the  present 
year,  abolishing  clerk  hire,  mileage,  and  station- 
ery allowances,  and  adding  #2500  to  the  con- 
gressional salary,  was  an  acknowledgment  of 
current  abuses  in  these  charges,  and  an  attempt 
to  correct  them: 

The  graft  in  the  various  departments  follows 
closely  upon,  and  is  generally  associated  with, 
congressional  graft.  The  Post-office  Depart- 
ment has  been  a  rich  field  for  the  grafter  since 
long  before  the  days  of  the  Star  Route  frauds. 
The  railway-mail-service  graft,  already  referred 
to,  is  a  conspicuous  instance.  But  the  recent 
disclosures  following  upon  the  Tulloch  charges 
have  shown  that  no  pent-up  Utica  contracts  the 
powers  of  the  postal  grafter.  The  whole,  the 
boundless  ramifications  of  the  service  are  evi- 
dently his.  And  though  because  of  the  dis- 
missal of  certain  officials,  and  the  trial  and 
conviction  of  some  among  them,  the  assertion 
is  now  made  that  graft  has  been  eliminated 
from  this  department,  the  public  waits  only 
some  now  unapprehended  circumstance  to 
bring  before  it  a  fresh  series  of  disclosures. 
The  Navy  Department  has  had  its  armor-plate 

227 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

swindles,  and  more  recently  its  naval  supply- 
fund  scandals,  and  the  odor  of  embalmed  beef 
yet  clings  to  the  War  Department.  In  certain 
bureaus  of  the  Interior  Department,  particu- 
larly those  of  public  lands,  pensions,  and  Indian 
affairs,  graft  has  long  maintained  its  hold. 
Within  the  last  year  a  new  scandal  was  brought 
to  light  —  a  gigantic  series  of  frauds  in  the 
acquirement  of  several  hundred  thousand  acres 
of  public  lands  under  the  Forest  Reserve  Lien 
Land  act  of  1897.  On  top  of  this  it  was  shown, 
in  the  report  of  Commissioner  Richards  (No- 
vember i,  1903),  that  unlawful  enclosures  of 
land  have  been  made  during  the  previous  year 
to  the  extent  of  more  than  2,600,000  acres. 
Fresh  grafts  were  also  revealed  in  the  conduct 
of  Indian  affairs.  The  special  report  of  Messrs. 
Charles  J.  Bonaparte  and  Clinton  Rogers  Wood- 
ruff on  a  series  of  charges  preferred  by  Mr. 
Brosius,  of  the  Indian  Rights  Association,  de- 
clared that  the  members  of  the  Dawes  Com- 
mission, who  were  appointed  to  protect  the 
rights  of  Indians  in  their  lands,  had  become 
interested  in  land-speculating  companies,  and 
were  in  fact  leagued  with  other  exploiters  of 
the  Indians.  In  addition,  many  of  the  so- 
called  trust  companies  operating  in  the  Indian 
Territory,  under  the  sanction  of,  and  probably 

228 


THE   REIGN    OF   GRA 


in  collusion  with,  the  commission,  were  de- 
clared to  be  "little  more  than  associations  of 
individual '  grafters.' '  So  long  as  business  con- 
tinues—  so  long  as  the  individualist,  competi- 
tive struggle  for  the  means  of  life  endures  — 
there  will  be  a  trading  class  such  as  that  of 
to-day,  and  it  will  inevitably  graft  upon  the 
rest  of  society,  with  a  particular  aim  at  the 
public  service.  •  Seed-time  and  harvest  may 
fail,  and  the  rainbow  disappear  from  the  sky ; 
but  the  grafter  and  all  his  works  will  assuredly 
remain. 

And  why  is  it  that  men  graft?  It  is  not 
because  they  are  innately  dishonest.  On  the 
contrary,  one  is  probably  safe  in  postulating 
a  universal  aspiration  toward  honesty.  But 
whatever  one's  ideals  may  be,  he  is  necessarily 
the  creature  of  his  time,  and  .the  most  power- 
ful determinant  of  conduct  in  any  particular 
time  is  the  prevailing  mode  of  production  and 
distribution.  Under  our  present  mode  the  in- 
dividual is  forced  to  seek  a  material  advantage 
over  his  fellow;  and  his  ethical  standards,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  sanction  the  acts  which  are 
necessary,  or  in  the  main  profitable.  Our 
practical  ethics  develop  hand  in  hand  with  the 
development  of  industry ;  they  are  modified  by 
modifications  in  the  form  of  production,  and 

229 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

in  general  they  accord  with  our  material  interests. 
Men  graft  because  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do 
so,  and  because,  it  being  to  their  interest,  they 
do  not,  as  a  rule,  recognize  graft  as  wrong.  It 
cannot  be  otherwise,  no  matter  what  is  preached 
or  taught  by  a  few  individuals  providentially 
placed  apart  from  the  unremitting  struggle. 
So  long  as  men  consent  to  abide  by  an  indi- 
vidualist, competitive  mode  of  production,  they 
must  seek  an  advantage  over  their  fellows. 
The  character  of  that  advantage  cannot  be 
moralized  by  religion ;  it  cannot  be  purified, 
except  in  spots,  by  law.  It  is  determined  by 
necessity,  and  necessity,  according  to  the  adage, 
knows  no  law.  Only  by  removing  the  incen- 
tive will  society  eliminate  graft. 


230 


CHAPTER   IX 

THE  FAILURE  OF  THE  TRADING  CLASS 
I 

THE  traders  are  now,  and  have  been  for 
nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century,  the  rulers 
of  the  civilized  world.  They  are  not,  in  all 
places,  the  absolute  rulers,  for  in  many  coun- 
tries their  attempts  at  complete  dominance 
have  been  successfully  resisted  by  opposing 
classes.  But  in  all  Western  countries  they  are 
the  most  influential  class,  while  in  America 
their  measure  of  power  is  practically  unlimited. 
Here,  though  antagonistic  interests  of  individ- 
uals and  groups  within  this  class  oppose  one 
another,  creating  issues  which  must  be  fought 
out  or  compromised,  yet  the  general  interests 
common  to  the  whole  class  of  traders  dominate 
society,  and  are  enshrined  in  all  its  institutions. 

It  is  pertinent  to  inquire  how  the  traders 
have  administered  the  world's  affairs.  The 
student  of  social  problems  cannot  doubt  that 
insecurity  of  livelihood  is  more  widespread 

231 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

now  than  ever  before  in  history.  In  even  the 
most  prosperous  times  there  is,  in  all  civilized 
centres,  a  vast  mass  of  poverty,  want,  and  deg- 
radation ;  while  during  the  frequently  recurring 
depressions  of  trade,  multitudes  are  forced  to 
the  verge  of  starvation.  The  wealth  created 
by  the  producers  is  not  retained  by  them; 
the  processes  of  trading-class  industrialism 
divert  a  great  part  of  it  into  other  hands. 
Fraud  and  deception  are  fostered  and  prevail 
in  all  activities.  A  fierce  and  unremitting 
battle  is  waged,  wherein,  as  a  rule,  every  man 
must  strive  to  get  the  advantage  of  his  fellow, 
wherein  the  cunning  and  the  strong  are  victors 
and  the  weaker  or  more  scrupulous  are  blotted 
out  and  eliminated.  A  vast  horde  of  retainers 
hang  upon  the  victors,  and  fed  by  their  bounty, 
disseminate  through  pulpit,  schoolroom,  and 
press,  trading-class  views  of  life  and  conduct, 
while  they  ridicule  the  aspirations  for  justice 
and  universal  welfare  which  arise  in  the  hearts 
of  the  producing  classes. 

Obviously  those  persons  in  charge  of  a  trust 
should  be  capable  of  proving  an  organic  capac- 
ity to  administer  it.  The  great  business  men 
of  the  world  —  the  captains  of  industry  —  are, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  world's  trustees  for 
production  and  distribution.  Have  they  ever 

232 


FAILURE   OF  THE  TRADING   CLASS 

shown  a  comprehension  of  the  social  functions 
which  ought  rightly  to  pertain  to  true  captains 
of  industry?  Have  they,  for  instance,  ever 
come  together  to  work  out  a  plan  for  making 
production  and  distribution  continuous,  so  as 
to  prevent  the  terrible  stoppages  that  so  fre- 
quently occur  ?  They  have  never  even  thought 
of  doing  such  a  thing.  And  why  not?  Be- 
cause they  have  no  instinct  for  general  trustee- 
ship, and  no  instinct  for  cohesion.  Being 
traders,  their  dominant  instinct  is  for  individ- 
ual motive  and  action.  The  making  of  profit 
is  everywhere  their  one  aim,  and  in  the  prose-' 
cution  of  that  aim  they  are  necessarily  im- 
pelled to  struggle  with  one  another  and  with 
all  mankind.  Their  minds  cannot  grasp  the 
idea  of  responsibility  to  the  mass,  nor  the  idea ' 
of  general  welfare  for  its  own  sake.  They  in- 
stinctively reject  every  movement  that  would 
put  a  check  upon  the  opportunities  for  profit. 
"  No  profit,  no  production,"  is,  negatively  ex- 
pressed, their  rule  of  action. 

The  business  of  the  trader  is  to  make  profit, 
and  he  must  school  his  mind  to  this  sole  pur- 
pose. He  must  exclude  from  his  business 
mind  all  thought  of  how  his  operations  affect 
others,  except  in  so  far  as  the  effect  may  react 
on  his  own  profits.  He  must  scorn  as  "bad 

233 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

business "  all  such  considerations  as  whether 
the  things  he  makes  and  sells  are  really 
needed  ;  whether  they  get  to  the  people  who 
need  them,  and  whether  the  people  who  make 
them  under  his  direction  work  and  live  in 
such  conditions  that  they  in  turn  can  obtain 
and  enjoy  the  things  they  need.  His  business 
mind  must  be  steel-plated  against  any  impres- 
sions from  such  considerations.  And  if,  like 
Mr.  N.  O.  Nelson  or  the  late  Mayor  Jones,  he 
does  give  weight  to  such  considerations,  he  is, 
to  the  extent  that  he  does  so,  a  failure  as  a 
business  man  :  he  has  not  made  the  profit  he 
might  have  made,  he  has  not  exploited  his 
advantages  to  the  full. 

Do  the  traders  feel  any  collective  responsi- 
bility, as  employers  of  the  masses,  of  seeing 
that  the  conditions  of  the  employed  producers 
are  good  —  that  their  labor  is  carried  on  in 
a  healthful  way,  and  that  they  are  healthfully 
housed  ?  As  a  class  they  have  steadfastly  op- 
posed, in  all  times  since  the  beginning  of  capi- 
talism, and  they  still  oppose,  every  movement 
for  safeguarding  the  health  and  lives  of  the 
workers  in  their  employments.  More  men 
are  killed  and  wounded  every  year  by  the  rail- 
roads that  employ  them  than  were  killed  and 
wounded  by  General  Lee's  army  in  the  sangui- 

234 


FAILURE   OF  THE  TRADING   CLASS 

nary  three  days'  conflict  at  Gettysburg;  the 
coal  mines  approximate  fifteen  hundred  killings 
and  thirty-five  hundred  maimings  yearly,  while 
the  casualty  list  of  the  factories,  though  uncom- 
puted,  is  known  to  be  enormous.  Yet  every 
effort  to  lessen  the  number  of  these  casualties, 
so  long  as  it  involves  expense,  is  resisted. 
The  Safety  Appliance  act  of  1893  was  bit- 
terly fought,  and  it  was  not  until  amendments 
greatly  modifying  its  terms  —  in  particular  the 
granting  of  seven  years'  grace  for  compliance 
—  were  added,  that  the  railroads  would  permit 
its  passage.  Equal  resistance  is  shown  to  the 
various  bills  in  the  state  legislatures  providing 
for  the  guarding  of  dangerous  machinery,  and 
the  regulation  of  other  conditions  of  employ- 
ment. Life  is  but  a  bagatelle  when  it  stands 
in  the  way  of  profit. 

If  anything  could  awaken  in  the  ruling  class 
a  sense  of  guardianship  of  the  people's  interests, 
it  would  be  the  sight  of  helpless  children  in  the 
factories.  Yet  from  the  beginning  of  the 
regime  of  the  traders,  children  have  been  done 
to  death  by  wholesale  for  profit,  and  all  efforts  to 
shield  them  have  been  resisted.  It  is  true  that 
some  trading-class  sentiment  in  behalf  of  the 
children  in  Southern  factories  has  recently  been 
voiced;  but  its  home  is  in  the  North.  Along 

235 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

with  a  great  deal  of  purely  humane  and  disin- 
terested feeling  that  has  been  aroused  over  this 
matter,  is  the  interested  feeling  of  a  part  of  the 
trading  class  of  a  section  where  child  labor  has 
been  restricted  by  the  state,  against  competitors 
in  a  section  where  there  are  few  or  no  restric- 
tions. In  the  South  the  exploitation  goes 
merrily  on ;  and  all  the  old  arguments  regard- 
ing the  moral  peril  of  children  not  at  work,  that 
did  service  eighty  years  ago  in  England,  are  made 
to  do  duty  again  in  preventing  regulative  laws. 
The  sight  of  old  men  who  have  toiled  all 
their  lives  for  the  profit  of  others,  and  are  in 
their  age  left  helpless  and  destitute,  might  also 
touch  the  trader's  sense  of  guardianship,  if  it 
existed.  And  yet  the  one  obvious  relief  for 
these  veterans  of  industry,  consonant  with  their 
self-respect  —  old-age  pensions  —  is  assailed  by 
the  traders  with  the  utmost  vehemence.  So 
reasonable,  so  just,  so  moderate,  a  measure 
would  seem  scarcely  to  require  arguments  in 
its  favor.  It  would  modify,  though  meanly 
and  inadequately,  one  of  the  ghastliest  defects 
of  the  capitalist  regime  —  the  privation  and 
suffering  to  which  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
great  industrial  army  is  inevitably  doomed. 
But  the  trader  mind  will  not  concern  itself. 
Certain  corporations,  it  is  admitted,  have 

236 


FAILURE   OF   THE  TRADING   CLASS 

recently  established  old-age  pensions.  But  the 
conditions  imposed  are  such  that  relatively  few 
employees  can  ever  hope  to  fulfil  them,  and  the 
motive  prompting  the  action  is  universally 
understood  to  be  the  hope  of  weakening  the 
bond  between  the  employee  and  his  labor  union. 
General  old-age  pensions  as  an  act  of  justice 
by  society  to  its  toilers  are  not  in  accord  with 
trading-class  ethics.  They  do  not  make  for 
profit,  and  therefore  are  not  to  be  considered. 

The  traders,  though  in  control,  give  no  sign* 
of  a  sense  of  trusteeship.  They  do  not  look 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  their  own  interests. 
Governed  by  the  ethic  of  contract,  they  recog- 
nize no  responsibility  beyond  that  nominated  in 
the  bond.  While  the  producers,  or  at  least  that 
part  of  them  which  has  become  conscious  of  a 
class  community  of  interest  and  a  class  mission, 
look  forward  to  a  universal  commonwealth,  in 
which  classes  shall  be  abolished,  the  traders 
look  forward  only  to  an  eternal  continuance  of 
wrangling  classes,  a  perpetuation  through  all 
time  of  cheap  buying  and  dear  selling.  The 
warless  ideal  of  the  producers  is  to  the  traders 
a  vaporish  dream;  and  that  any  one  should 
expect  of  them  even  the  remotest  tolerance  of 
such  an  ideal  is  to  their  minds  a  subject  for 
amused  wonder. 

237 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

The  domination  of  the  trading  class  shows 
its  most  characteristic  fruit  in  our  corrupt 
governmentalism.  In  England,  Germany,  and 
France  government  is  relatively  pure.  But  in 
those  countries,  the  trading  class,  though  a 
great  power,  has  never  been  able  to  gain  com- 
plete dominance.  It  has  been  constantly, 
though  with  declining  force,  resisted  by  other 
classes.  The  political  contests  in  England 
were  for  many  years  during  the  last  century 
nothing  else  than  struggles  for  supremacy 
between  the  trading  class  and  the  landed  aris- 
tocracy. Both  in  England  and  on  the  conti- 
nent the  traders  have  gradually  advanced  their 
position,  but  have  never  reached  undisputed 
control ;  and  the  consequence  has  been  a  series 
of  compromises  by  which  governmental  forms 
and  practices  that  had  their  origin  in  the  later 
feudal  times  have  persisted.  The  feudal  regime 
exploited  labor  as  does  modern  capitalism ;  but 
along  with  its  particular  form  of  exploitation  it 
developed  in  its  servitors  a  spirit  of  devotion  to 
duty,  of  loyalty  to  the  state,  and  of  obligation 
certain  sort  to  their  dependants.  Both  in 
England  and  in  Germany,  and  to  a  less  extent 
in  France,  the  traditions  and  precedents  govern- 
ing the  conduct  of  public  officials  have  followed 
the  earlier  ideals,  and  have  in  large  measure 

238 


s  du 

V 


FAILURE   OF   THE  TRADING   CLASS 

withstood  the  assaults    of   trading-class   influ- 
ences. 

But  in  America  the  trading  class  has  been 
for  many  years  supreme.  It  was  practically 
so  during  the  two  decades  before  the  Civil 
War,  and  it  has  been  truly  so  since  then. 
No  antagonistic  class  has  been  sufficiently 
strong  to  defeat  it,  or  even  to  force  from  it 
important  concessions.  The  main  political 
result  is  to  be  seen  in  the  general  practice  of 
the  buying  and  selling  of  all  the  powers  of 
government.  No  tradition  of  public  duty 
possesses  the  traders  as  a  class ;  they  see  what 
can  be  gained  for  themselves  by  corrupting 
the  public  service,  and  neither  tradition  nor 
ideal  restrains  them.  Of  what  other  civilized 
nation  could  the  following  indictment  be  seri- 
ously made  ?  It  is  written,  we  believe,  in  all 
sincerity,  with  a  confessional  note  running 
throughout  it,  by  one  who  has  had  the  best  of 
opportunities  for  ascertaining,  ufrom  the  in- 
side," the  truth  of  what  he  here  says :  — 

"  At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  United  States 
has  the  power  of  dollars  been  as  great  as  now.  Free- 
dom and  equity  are  controlled  by  dollars.  The  laws 
which  should  preserve  and  enforce  all  rights  are  made 
and  enforced  by  dollars.  It  is  possible  to-day,  with 
dollars,  to  "  steer  "  the  selection  of  the  candidates  of 

239 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

both  the  great  parties  for  the  highest  office  in  our 
Republic,  that  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
so  that  the  people,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  must  elect  one 
of  the  "  steered  "  candidates.  It  is  possible  to  repeat 
the  operation  in  the  selection  of  candidates  for  the 
executive  and  legislative  conduct  and  control  of  every 
state  and  municipality  in  the  United  States,  and  with 
a  sufficient  number  of  dollars  to  "  steer  "  the  doings 
of  the  law-makers  and  law-enforcers  of  the  national, 
state,  and  municipal  governments  of  the  people,  and 
a  sufficient  proportion  of  the  court  decisions,  to  make 
absolute  any  power  created  by  such  direction.  It  is 
all,  broadly  speaking,  a  matter  of  dollars  to  practically 
accomplish  these  things." 1 

The  traders  dominate,  and  under  their  con- 
trol the  government  becomes  little  more  than 
an  agency  for  furthering  trade.  "Of  gods, 
friends,  learnings,  of  the  uncomprehended  civ- 
ilization which  they  overrun,"  wrote  the  late 
Mr.  Henry  D.  Lloyd,  in  his  Wealth  Against 
Commonwealth,  "they  ask  but  one  question: 
How  much?  What  is  a  good  time  to  sell? 
What  is  a  good  time  to  buy?  .  .  .  Their 
heathen. eyes  see  in  the  law  and  its  consecrated 
officers  nothing  but  an  intelligence  office,  and 
hired  men  to  help  them  burglarize  the  treasures 
accumulated  for  a  thousand  years  at  the  altars 

1  Thomas  W.  Lawson,  article  on  "  Frenzied  Finance,"  Every- 
body's Magazine,  September,  1904. 

240 


FAILURE   OF   THE   TRADING   CLASS 

of  liberty  and  justice,  that  they  may  burn  their 
marble  for  the  lime  of  commerce."  In  all  things  ~1 
that  make  for  social  and  moral  progress  and  for  / 
the  right  government  of  men,  the  ruling  class 
of  traders  has  steadily  failed  in  its  duty.  It 
has  not  only  failed  utterly  in  actual  administra- 
tion, but  as  a  class  has  failed  even  to  compre- 
hend the  social  need.  It  has  now  played  its 
part,  and  must  in  time,  by  reason  of  resistless 
forces  everywhere  at  work,  give  way  to  the  rule 
of  another  class.1 

II 

To  point  out  the  failure  of  the  trading  class, 
economically  and  socially,  is  not  necessarily  to 
denounce  the  individual  trader.  As  men,  there 
are  good  and  bad  among  traders,  as  in  every 
other  class.  In  general  they  are  honorable, 
according  to  the  ethics  of  their  class ;  disposed 
to  be  fair,  as  they  understand  fairness.  A  great 
number  of  them  are  men  who  are  faithful  to  the 
last  degree  in  every  engagement,  expressed  or 
implied;  public-spirited,  in  accord  with  their 

1  For  an  opposite  presentation  of  the  trader,  wherein  he  is 
extolled  in  the  highest  terms,  the  recent  Centennial  Oration 
delivered  by  D.  P.  Kingsley,  A.M.,  at  the  one  hundredth  com- 
mencement of  the  University  of  Vermont,  should  be  read.  It  has 
been  printed  in  pamphlet  form.  ^ 

R  241 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

understanding  of  public  needs,  and  willing  to 
spend  time  and  money  for  such  public  interests 
as  seem  to  them  right ;  good-hearted,  also,  and 
eager  to  help,  with  sympathy  and  means,  a 
human  being  in  distress. 

And  yet  their  virtues  are,  even  at  the  best,  as 
an  inevitable  result  of  the  guidance  of  trading- 
class  interest  and  the  exercise  of  the  trading- 
class  function,  generally  individual  and  non- 
social.  Their  sense  of  individual  obligation 
is  often  strong  when  they  have  but  a  feeble 
sense  of  social  obligation.  Kind  and  generous 
as  they  may  be  to  their  kindred  and  friends, 
they  can  yet  look  upon  the  great  masses  of  their 
fellow-beings  as  strangers  and  enemies.  Even 
-jwhere  their  actions  most  closely  approach  a  truly 
social  character,  as  in  benefactions  for  public 
purposes,  they  still  cling  to  the  individualist 
code,  and  evade  the  real  and  crying  needs  of 
society.  They  cannot  look  at  society  as  an 
organism  of  interdependent  parts,  but  only  as 
an  aggregation  of  warring  units.  Rarely  do 
they  even  so  much  as  apprehend  the  ethic  of 
fellowship.  Their  public  gifts  are  devoted  to 
other  than  the  fundamental  things ;  they  give 
to  relieve  the  distress  occasioned  by  the  present 
system,  or  to  encourage  and  develop  the  par- 
ticular kind  of  skill  and  adroitness  needed 

242 


FAILURE   OF   THE  TRADING   CLASS 

under  it,  but  rarely  or  never  for  the  correction 
of  the  glaring  defects  of  the  system  itself. 
They  donate  to  charity,  or  they  endow  or 
found  a  library,  but  never  do  they  give  to 
promote  a  movement  that  aims  to  modify  the 
fratricidal  struggle  among  men.  A  movement 
such  as  that  seeking  the  abolition  of  child  labor 
(unless  for  some  section  competing  with  their 
own),  or  the  guarding  of  machinery,  or  the  es- 
tablishment of  a  minimum  wage,  is  to  them  an 
interference  with  a  divine  order.  "Save  who 
can,"  is  their  motto  for  the  unceasing  conflict, 
though  they  generously  offer  to  train,  in  their 
colleges  and  technological  schools,  a  part  of 
the  coming  generation  of  combatants,  or  to 
soothe,  in  their  hospitals,  the  sufferings  of  a 
fraction  of  those  who  are  struck  down  in 
battle. 

It  may  even  be  said  that  the  net  result  of 
many  of  their  benefactions  is  nothing  less  than 
the  prostitution  of  the  recipients  —  in  particular 
of  writers,  preachers,  and  educators.  For  the 
natural  tendency  among  those  endowed  by  their 
bounty  is  to  accept  the  warring,  exploiting,  and 
deceptive  code  of  the  traders  and  to  dissemi- 
nate it  as  a  creed  for  all  mankind.  While  those 
who  submit  to  this  influence  are  but  human  in 
doing  so,  the  few  who  resist  being  of  a  pecul- 

243 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

iarly  heroic  stamp,  and  while  the  traders  who 
exert  this  pressure  are,  for  the  most  part,  un- 
aware that  they  are  doing  anything  socially  in- 
jurious, believing  they  are  but  exercising  their 
rights,  the  process  is  nevertheless  most  injuri- 
ous to  the  people,  robbing  them  on  a  vast  scale 
of  indirect  economic  help  and  of  direct  spiritual 
help.  The  right  function  of  these  social  ser- 
vants is  perverted,  and  society  is  thereby  a 
sufferer.  Thus,  even  in  their  more  social  aims, 
the  traders  too  often  succeed  only  in  a  further 
corruption  of  the  social  organism. 

Ill 

Whatever  their  individual  virtues  or  defects 
may  be,  the  traders  as  a  class  have  failed  dis- 
mally in  administering  the  world's  affairs.  And 
so  obvious  to  great  numbers  of  men  is  this 
failure,  and  so  intolerable  is  the  burden  which 
it  entails,  that  now  an  opposing  class,  ever  in- 
creasing in  numbers  and  ever  attaining  to  a 
clearer  consciousness  of  its  mission,  threatens 
the  traders'  dominance.  A  class  it  has  been 
termed ;  but  it  is  something  more  than  a  class. 
It  is  a  union  of  all  men  whom  the  burden  and 
pressure  of  the  trading-class  regime  force  to 
like  action  in  the  assertion  of  their  economic 

244 


FAILURE   OF   THE   TRADING   CLASS 

claims,  and  in  whom  is  awakened  a  common 
hope  of  a  reorganization  of  society  and  a  deter- 
mination to  achieve  it.  At  its  centre  is  the  class 
of  wage-earning  producers;  and  it  is  flanked 
by  other  producers ;  by  such  social  servants  as 
have  risen  above  the  retainer  mind ;  by  such  of 
the  petty  manufacturers  and  dealers  as  see  in 
the  continuance  of  the  present  regime  an  ap- 
proaching ruin  of  their  livelihoods ;  by  men  of 
whatever  class  in  whom  the  love  of  usefulness, 
or  the  love  of  fellowship,  or  the  passion  for 
social  justice,  is  intrinsically  stronger  than  the 
love  of  profit  or  of  individual  advantage.  It  is 
the  Social-minded  Mass  arraying  itself  against 
the  unsocial-minded  classes. 

Its  base  and  centre,  as  has  been  said,  is  the 
class  of  wage-earning  producers ;  and  the  move- 
ment is  impelled  by  a  sense,  more  or  less  con- 
scious, of  class  interests.  But  this  sense  of 
class  interests  is  neither  particular  nor  exclu- 
sive. It  is  one  which  those  who  hold  sincerely 
identify  with  the  true  interests  of  all  men.  The 
workers  and  their  allies  ask  nothing  for  them- 
selves, to  paraphrase  the  words  of  Whitman, 
which  they  are  not  willing  to  grant  to  all  other 
men  upon  equal  terms.  Other  classes,  in  all 
times,  have  identified,  with  varying  degrees 
of  sincerity,  their  own  interests  with  those  of 

245 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

mankind :  the  manufacturers  of  eighty  years 
ago  saw  in  their  brutal  exploitation  of  labor 
the  working  out  of  a  law  of  God  for  the  best 
interests  of  the  race,  and  the  barons  of  feudal 
times  were  never  disturbed  in  their  conviction 
that  villeinage  was  a  beneficent  thing  for  serf 
as  well  as  for  lord.  But  this  sense  of  collective 
interests,  as  held  by  classes  other  than  the  pro- 
ducers of  modern  times,  has  almost  invariably 
involved  a  conviction  of  the  necessity  and 
righteousness  of  exploiting  other  classes. 
Even  the  revolting  peasants  of  past  times 
were  generally  guided  by  no  higher  aim  than 
that  of  exchanging  places  with  their  masters, 
and  of  exploiting  in  turn  those  who  before 
had  exploited  them.  Not  until  the  rise  of 
the  modern  proletariat  has  the  fundamental 
conviction  of  any  class  expressed  itself  in  a 
moral  law  equally  applicable  to  all  mankind. 
That  law  is  the  law  of  economic  solidarity  — 
a  law  growing  out  of  the  ethic  of  fellowship 
and  the  ethic  of  usefulness.  It  is  the  natural 
product  of  working-class  life  under  modern 
working-class  conditions;  and  though,  with 
society  organized  as  it  now  is,  this  law  is 
distinctively  a  class  expression  of  the  workers 
against  the  exploiters  and  the  idlers,  it  is  also 
the  expression  of  an  altruistic  ideal  —  of  an 

246 


FAILURE   OF   THE   TRADING   CLASS 

ideal  that  embraces  all  the  units  of  the  race, 
under  a  revolutionized  and  reorganized  society 
in  which  classes  shall  be  no  more. 

The  economic  motive  dominates,  and  the 
ideal  is  necessarily  conditioned  by  this  motive 
and  its  environment.  Those  rare  men,  not  of 
the  working  class,  in  whom  a  passion  for 
social  justice  prompts  to  altruistic  endeavor, 
are  unquestionably  factors  of  moment  in  the 
social  movement ;  but  their  power  is  but  feeble 
as  compared  with  that  of  the  army  of  workmen 
guided  by  class  feeling  and  impelled  by  class 
determination  founded  upon  class  needs. 
Society  will  never  get  to  the  point  of  organ- 
izing the  industrial  process  merely  from  here 
and  there  an  exceptionally  idealistic  or  altruis- 
tic person  arguing  that  it  ought  to  be  done. 
The  pleas  of  the  idealist  will  never  overcome 
the  determination  of  those  in  possession  to 
retain  the  methods  by  which  they  gain  wealth 
and  hold  it  at  the  expense  of  other  men.  The 
economic  motive  is  —  for  the  mass  of  men  — 
the  strongest  of  all  motives ;  and  the  economic 
environment  determines  the  method  by  which 
that  motive  shall  be  expressed  in  action.  Even 
the  idealist  himself  is  Kmited  in  the  following 
out  of  his  ideals  by  his  economic  necessities, 
and  when  these  directly  oppose  the  personal 

247 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

realization  of  his  ideals,  they  are  usually  vic- 
torious. Though  there  are  many  individuals 
with  whom  ideals  have  great  force,  even  con- 
trolling force,  as  against  anything  short  of 
starvation,  yet  with  most  men  the  principal 
effect  of  ideals  is  to  strengthen  tendencies 
toward  actions  already  unconsciously  sug- 
gested by  economic  peril.  The  idealist  may, 
by  his  exhortations,  awaken  the  sub-conscious 
or  half-conscious  instinct  of  the  demanding 
class  into  a  full  consciousness  of  its  interests 
and  needs.  But  not  by  the  most  fervent  and 
eloquent  appeals  can  he  persuade  any  con- 
siderable part  of  the  dominant  and  possessing 
class  to  forego  their  authority  or  renounce 
their  possessions.  Only  a  collective  move- 
ment of  a  vast  mass  of  the  people,  animated 
by  the  determination  to  get  better  conditions 
of  life  as  a  class,  their  purpose  immensely 
heightened  by  the  conviction  of  the  righteous- 
ness of  their  demand,  will  bring  society  to 
undertake  the  task  of  industrial  reorganization. 


IV 

There  is  now  emerging  from  the  trading 
class  a  new  group,  small  in  numbers  but  mighty 
in  power.  By  a  stringent  process  of  automatic 

248 


FAILURE   OF   THE   TRADING    CLASS 

selection  from  the  personnel  of  a  corporation 
engaged  in  the  competitive  struggle  with  rival 
corporations,  the  most  effective  men  are,  as  a 
rule,  brought  to  the  front ;  and  thus  has  been 
developed  a  breed  of  executives  highly  gifted 
with  the  faculty  of  organization.  The  faculty  of 
organization  means  first,  the  seeing  clearly  of 
what  the  work  is  which  has  to  be  done ;  second, 
the  perceiving  into  what  functions  the  work 
must  be  divided  in  order  to  get  it  done  most  ef- 
fectively ;  third,  the  knowing  how  to  select  the 
fittest  man  available  for  each  function ;  and 
fourth,  the  knowing  how  to  fit  the  motive  to 
the  function  and  the  man  —  the  motive  which 
is  just  such  and  so  much  as  will  bring  out  the 
best  there  is  in  the  man  and  in  the  function. 

The  individuals  who  have  most  of  this  faculty 
of  organization  have  come  into  lifelong  control 
of  their  respective  corporations.  Here  and 
there  one  has  completely  succeeded  in  the  war- 
fare of  competition,  and  having  made  his  own 
corporation  supreme  has  practically  abolished 
competition  in  his  own  business.  This  feat 
achieved,  the  man  cannot  and  does  not  cease 
to  be  an  organizer.  The  faculty  is  active  and 
rampant  within  him,  and  the  man  must  find  a 
new  field  for  its  activity.  From  being  the  per- 
fect organizer  of  a  corporation,  he  becomes  the 

249 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

organizer  of  a  union  of  corporations ;  from  the 
completed  task  of  eliminating  the  wastes  of 
inefficiency,  duplication,  and  cross-purposes 
within  one  establishment  (a  task  undertaken 
•primarily  not  for  the  sake  of  the  economy  itself, 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  better  fighting  machine 
thus  created)  he  instinctively  and  unconsciously 
comes  to  make  the  economizing  of  waste  a 
motive  in  itself;  he  perceives  the  immense 
wastes  existing  in  some  entire  industry,  and  his 
mordant  mind  gives  him  no  peace  until  he  has 
attacked  and  solved  the  problem  of  so  organiz- 
ing that  industry  as  to  eliminate  the  wastes. 

Within  such  a  man  is  now  awakened  a  mind 
which  outruns  the  environment  which  awakened 
it.  Starting  in  life  as  a  fighting  trader,  he  has 
now  come  partially  under  the  dominion  of  the 
ethic  of  usefulness.  Partially,  only,  for  his 
motive  is  not  the  concrete  welfare  of  the  human 
beings  concerned  in  the  business  he  is  remould- 
ing ;  his  motive  is  a  certain  ideal  of  order 
existing  in  his  own  mind.  His  ideal,  however, 
contains  the  greatest  possible  efficiency  in  the 
turning  out  of  the  commodity  made,  and  this  is 
one  part  of  the  ethic  of  usefulness. 

It  seems  likely  that  these  men  will  go  on  or- 
ganizing one  business  after  another  until  they 
control  al)  the  corporate  businesses.  They 

250 


FAILURE   OF   THE   TRADING   CLASS 

must  then  begin  to  handle  the  varied  industries 
in  some  sort  of  concert,  and  as  one  vast  task. 
When  this  comes  to  pass  they  cannot  escape 
the  burden  of  the  immense  waste  of  potential 
human  labor  involved  in  the  non-correlation  of 
the  industries,  and  the  awful  waste  of  possible 
human  welfare  involved  in  the  merely  mechani- 
cal form  of  relation  between  the  corporations 
and  their  empl6yees. 

It  cannot  be  pretended  that  the  moral  law  of 
economic  solidarity  has  taken  any  hold  upon 
the  mind  of  the  great  organizer.  The  labor 
union  is  distasteful  to  him ;  he  sees  in  it  an 
arrangement  by  which  the  weaker  brother 
shares  in  the  benefit  of  the  greater  productive- 
ness of  the  stronger  brother,  and  this  arrange- 
ment seems  to  him  to  make  distinctly  against 
progress  in  efficiency.  The  fact  that  it  makes 
for  increase  in  the  general  welfare  does  not 
appeal  to  him,  since  his  ideal  for  others  as  for 
himself,  is  not  happiness,  but  efficiency.  Never- 
theless, the  great  organizer  is  a  worker;  his 
true  affinity  is  with  those  who  toil,  and  not  with 
those  who  draw  dividends ;  with  his  innate  and 
passionate  hate  of  waste  he  must  sooner  or 
later  perceive  that  the  mere  capitalist  and  the 
mere  money  trader  are  themselves  a  waste  and 
ought  to  be  eliminated.  He  may,  as  in  all  like- 

251 


MASS  AND   CLASS 

lihood  he  will,  achieve  no  further  moral  develop- 
ment than  that  of  a  great  seigniorial  mind, 
active  and  capable,  efficient  to  organize  and 
strong  to  execute ;  but  the  work  which  he  does 
and  will  yet  do  is  of  incalculable  value  to  the 
ultimate  assertion  of  the  producer  type  of  social 
organization  and  the  producer  ideal  of  conduct 
and  life.  He  is  organizing  and  unifying  the 
industrial  system  to  a  state  wherein  it  can  the 
more  easily  be  taken  over  by  society  as  a  whole. 


Purely  ethical  attraction,  as  has  before  been 
said,  cannot  be  relied  upon  to  move  men  in 
the  mass.  The  economic  force  dominates  the 
ethical  force.  The  great  movements  of  the 
past  which  have  seemed,  to  the  apprehension 
of  the  people  in  them,  to  be  based  upon  dis- 
interested conscience,  have  generally,  if  not 
invariably,  had  a  basis  of  economic  pressure; 
and  for  all  the  wisest  know,  the  law  must  con- 
tinue to  hold.  Conscience  is  an  essential  factor 
in  giving  to  the  movement  fervor,  determina- 
tion, and  persistence ;  but  this  very  conscience, 
far  from  being  an  intuitive  moral  sense  or  a 
faculty  drawn  down  from  the  skies,  is  a  thing 
ultimately  founded  upon  economic  needs.  Its 

252 


FAILURE   OF   THE  TRADING   CLASS 

genesis  is  humble,  and  its  development  has 
come  by  gradual  steps.  First,  the  necessities 
of  a  great  mass  of  men  require  a  certain  con- 
tinuous course  of  action,  or  a  body  of  relatively 
consistent  actions ;  second,  there  springs  up 
spontaneously  in  the  minds  of  the  mass  the 
conviction  that  that  course  of  action  is  right, 
and  finally  this  conviction  spreads  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  original  mass  and  permeates  the 
more  sympathetically  disposed  among  the  out- 
siders. But  to  whatever  degree  this  conviction 
spreads,  persuading  or  overthrowing  the  former 
class  convictions  of  those  who  accept  it,  the 
base  of  the  movement  is,  and  must  remain,  the 
economic  need  of  the  demanding  class. 

Thus,  since  economic  ends  determine  the 
movements  of  mankind,  and  since  mankind  is 
necessarily  portioned  into  economic  classes,  it 
is  manifest  that  class  interest  must  be  the  back- 
bone of  the  social  movement.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that  class  interest  is  to  be  its  animating 
spirit.  In  the  living  body  the  bony  structure 
is  out  of  sight ;  the  fair  surface  is  what  appears 
to  the  eye  of  others  and  to  the  consciousness 
of  the  creature  itself.  So,  in  the  progressive 
social  movement,  class  interest  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  structure.  But  it  is  not  the 
sense  of  class  interest  which  arouses  moral 

253 


MASS   AND   CLASS 

enthusiasm.  It  inevitably  associates  men  in 
efforts  toward  common  aims ;  but  it  does  not 
awaken  in  them  that  passionate  fervor  which 
makes  for  a  regenerative  movement.  The  true 
heart  and  spirit  of  the  movement  is  the  passion 
for  social  justice.  And  this  passion  is  diffused 
throughout  the  great  body  of  a  class  only  when 
it  sincerely  and  righteously  identifies  its  inter- 
ests with  the  interests  of  all  men. 

In  the  nature  of  things,  seeing  that  under 
private  capitalism  class  interest  must  dominate 
men's  minds,  it  is  impossible  to  win  the  support 
of  any  considerable  number  of  the  trading  class 
(except  those  traders  who  are  being  pushed  to 
the  wall)  to  the  present  movement  of  the  pro- 
ducers. The  whole  mass  of  the  producers, 
joined  by  such  auxiliaries  from  the  other  classes 
as  from  time  to  time  may  free  themselves  from 
the  dominance  of  their  present  class  feeling, 
must  unite  in  the  economic  and  political  fields 
and  overcome  the  opposing  forces  in  order  to 
realize  their  ideal.  In  support  of  this  move- 
ment the  farmers  are  summoned  by  their  com- 
mon producer  interest  and  by  their  awakening 
producer  consciousness  to  league  themselves 
with  the  proletariat.  A  morally  inevadable 
appeal  lies  also  to  the  conscience  and  the  heart 
of  the  social  servant  to  follow  his  normal  social 

254 


FAILURE  OF  THE  TRADING   CLASS 

instinct,  and  freeing  himself  from  the  pressure 
imposed  by  the  traders,  to  merge  himself  in 
the  same  movement.  From  whatever  class  the 
individual  comes,  by  allying  himself  with  the 
producers  and  by  accepting  the  producer  ethics 
he  becomes  a  part  of  that  growing  and  unifying 
body,  the  social-minded  mass,  which,  when  it 
shall  become  wholly  conscious  of  its  mission, 
must  present  an  irresistible  front  to  the  un- 
social-minded classes. 

From  this  junction  of  forces  and  this  trial  of 
strength  must  come  the  cooperative  common- 
wealth. There  are  arguments  that  it  cannot 
be,  and  that  it  should  not  be  —  arguments  like 
those  heard  in  all  times  against  any  change  in 
social  arrangements.  They  are  all  of  a  kind, 
in  whatever  guise  they  appear;  and  their 
underlying  base  is  now,  as  ever,  a  justification 
of  the  claims  of  the  cunning  and  the  strong. 
When  one  reflects  upon  the  great  questions  of 
life  and  destiny,  the  common  origin,  the  identi- 
cal fate,  the  essential  brotherhood  of  man,  he 
can  find  no  sound  basis  for  sustaining  these 
rapacious  claims.  Placed  here,  as  on  a  giant 
raft,  moving  along  the  tides  of  an  infinite  ocean, 
sped  from  an  unknown  port  and  ignorant  of  its 
final  haven,  the  race  has  a  common  heritage 
and  a  common  destiny.  Gradually  the  huddling 

255 


MASS   AND    CLASS 

creatures  on  the  raft  become  conscious  of  their 
powers ;  they  erect  shelters  from  the  rain,  the 
heat,  and  the  cold,  and  they  fashion  clever 
tools  for  making  articles  of  use  and  beauty. 
By  design,  say  some;  by  immutable  law,  say 
others,  this  raft  is  amply  provisioned  for  a 
multitude  of  souls  and  an  indefinite  voyage; 
only  that  in  every  generation  the  cunning 
and  the  strong  take  to  themselves  the  greater 
share,  to  the  deprivation  of  others;  and  their 
right  to  do  so  is  ever  sustained  by  a  succes- 
sion of  ingenious  pleas  from  the  mouths  of 
other  men  —  themselves,  for  the  most  part, 
sharers  in  the  plunder.  But  slowly  among  the 
victims  arises  a  sense  of  the  injustice,  the  chaos, 
and  the  waste  of  this  practice ;  and  more  slowly, 
but  still  surely,  the  determination  to  be  rid  of 
it ;  to  apportion,  upon  equitable  terms,  the  com- 
mon burdens,  and  to  distribute,  in  equitable 
shares,  the  common  hoard.  That  determination 
is  the  growing  and  expanding  will  of  the  pro- 
ducing classes,  and  its  fulfilment  will  be  the 
cooperative  commonwealth. 


INDEX 


Abbott,  I.  W.,  181. 

Addams,  Jane,  quoted,  162-163. 

Adler,  Felix,  18. 

Adulteration  and  substitution,  99- 

100,  180-200. 

Alger,  George  W.,  quoted,  218-220. 
Allen,  Robert  M.,  quoted,  197-198. 
Ankenny,  Horace,  quoted,  190. 


B 


Bayard,  Thomas  F.,  123. 

Beck,  James  M.,  119. 

Bell,  Andrew,  quoted,  109. 

Blackburn,  J.  K,  quoted,  184,  1 88. 

Blatchford,  Robert,  72. 

Blood  bond,  the,  91. 

Bok,  Edward,  206-207. 

Bolen,  George  L.,  179, 200;  quoted, 

171-172. 

Brewer,  David  J.,  18. 
Brinton,  D.  G.,  quoted,  93. 
Biicher,  Carl,  6,  42,  44;    quoted, 

89,  90. 
Byllesby,  L.,  quoted,  49. 


Captains  of  industry,  83-84,  248- 

252. 

Carroll,  Lewis,  quoted,  180. 
Cheney,  Edward  P.,  quoted,  42. 


Child  labor,  104, 107, 120, 235-236, 

243. 
Class  conscience,  95,  98,  101-103, 

119,  204-205. 
Class    consciousness,    57,    60-64, 

1 1 8,  133,  244,  248. 
Class  ethics,  see  Ethics. 
Class  functions,  37,  40,  69-88. 
Class  hatred,  65-68. 
Class  instinct,  57-61. 
Classes,  and  the  class  struggle,  37- 

68;  early,  in  America,  46-50; 

genesis  of,  37, 40-50;  historic 

continuity  of,  43-46. 
Cleveland,  Grover,  123. 
Colorado,  64,  112,  127,  156,  225. 
Commons,  John  R.,  57,  106. 
Commonwealth,  cooperative,  255- 

256. 

Constitutions,  early  state,  26-28. 
Corruption,  governmental,  220-229, 

238-241. 


Displacement,  from  class,  54-56. 
Doolittle,  R.  E.,  quoted,  189-190. 
Druggists,  99-100,  193-196. 

E 

Economic  interpretation  of  history, 

8-36. 
Economic  solidarity,  moral  law  of, 

117-118,  246. 


257 


INDEX 


Eliot,  Charles  W.,  18,  119,  134. 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  73;   quoted,  50- 

52,  156- 
Engels,  Frederick,  72;   quoted,  II- 

12,  14-15. 

Ethic  of  contract,   140-143,    146, 

237- 

Ethic  of  deception,  143-145,  146. 

Ethic  of  fellowship,  29,  114-117, 
131,  133,  242. 

Ethic  of  "  free  "  labor,  31-33,  146- 
149. 

Ethic  of  sacredness  of  private  pos- 
sessions, 146. 

Ethic  of  usefulness,  114-115,  164, 
177,  204,  205. 

Ethics,  genesis  of,  89-104;  of  the 
producers,  114-138;  of  the 
retainers,  102-113,  119,  122, 
137-138,  140,  148-149;  of  a 
ruling  class,  29-34;  of  the 
traders,  99-101, 104,  119, 139- 
167,  175-179,  I9S-I96,  233- 

243- 
Ezekiel,  quoted,  19. 


Fabian  Society,  the,  72. 

Factory  reform  agitation,  106-1 1 1, 


General  Slocum,  the,  125. 

George,  Henry,  217. 

Giffen,  Robert,  72. 

Godkin,   E.    L.,    158,    161,    162; 

quoted,  159-160. 
Godwin,  Parke,  49. 
Gordon,  John  B.,  39. 
Graft,  in  public  service,  220-229, 

238-241;    the   reign    of,   35, 

168-230. 


Greeley,  Horace,  quoted,  49. 
Green,  John  Richard,  2. 
Green,  Thomas  Hill,  quoted,  103. 
Grote,  George,  2. 

Gunton,  George,  134;  quoted,  135- 
136. 

H 

Hadley,  Arthur  T.,  18. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  quoted,  151- 

152. 

Herbert,  Hilary  A.,  39. 
Hill,    Frederick    Trevor,    quoted, 

178-179. 
Hillis,  Newell  D wight,  120;  quoted, 

I2I-I22. 

History,  newer  spirit  in,  1-4;  eco- 
nomic interpretation  of,  8-36. 
Hodder,  Alfred,  quoted,  195-196. 
Huxley,  Thomas  H.,  quoted,  150- 


Ideals,  their  limitation  by  the  eco- 
nomic environment,  15-21,  59, 
96, 98,  102-113, 140,  247-248, 
252-254. 

Illinois,  graft  in,  225. 

Ingersoll,  Robert  G.,  quoted,  35. 

Ingram,  J.  K.,  quoted,  43. 

Instinct,  class,  57-61;  of  group 
safety,  89-91, 94. 


Jones,  Samuel  M.,  234. 

K 

Kautsky,  Karl,  72. 
Keller,  H.  S.,  92. 
Kellor,  Frances,  212. 
Kingsley,  D.  P.,  241. 


258 


INDEX 


Kirby,  John,  Jr.,  quoted,  32. 
Kirkup,  Thomas,  72. 
Kropotkin,  Peter,  42,  91 ;  quoted, 
92. 

L 

Labriola,  Antonio,  quoted,  13,  23 
Lawlessness,  in  America,  120-138. 
Lawson,  Thomas  W.,  217;  quoted, 

239-240. 
Lederle,  Ernst  J.,   189,  194,  J95» 

196. 

Levi,  Leone,  72. 
Lewis,  Austin,  17. 
Lewis,  Jocelyn,  quoted,  208-209 
Lloyd,  Henry  D.,  123, 131 ;  quoted, 

240. 

London,  Jack,  quoted,  142. 
Lovejoy,  Owen  R.,  quoted,  66 

M 


|  New  York  Legislature,  graft   in, 
224. 

P 

Parr,  Samuel,  quoted,  109. 
Parry,  D.  M.,  quoted,  32. 
Patriotism,  genesis  of,  15. 
Pennsylvania,  graft  in,  225. 
Pensions,  old-age,  236-237. 
Philadelphia,  graft  in,  207. 
Philbin,  Eugene  A.,  quoted,  176- 

Producers,  ethics  of,  114-138;  self- 
employing,  40,  79-8i ;  wage- 
earning,  40,  54,  55,  S8,  59- 
6 1,  64,  70-71,  77-79,  94,  98, 
102,  149-167,  234-237,  244- 
248. 

Proletarians,  see  Producers,  wage- 
earning. 

R 


McMaster,  John  Bach,  3;  quoted, 

26-27,  47- 

McMurry,  Charles  A.,  quoted,  2. 
Mallock,  W.  H.,  v-vi,  73. 
Marriage,  genesis  of,  16. 
Marx,  Karl,  8,  9,  14,  72,  IO7,  l%7- 
Menger,  Anton,  72. 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  107 ;  quoted,  30. 
Missouri,  graft  in,  168,   169,  173, 

224. 

Mitchell,  William  C.,  182. 
More,  Hannah,  quoted,  109, 
Morris,  William,  quoted,  155. 
Mulhall,  Michael,  72. 
Mussey,     Henry     R.,     209-210; 

quoted,  210. 


N 


Race  struggles,  42,  9*»  93- 
Ratzenhofer,  Gustav,  4. 
Retainers,  85-87;  ethics  of,  102- 
113,  119,  122,  i37-r38,  HO, 

148-149- 
Rhode  Island,  graft  in,  225-226. 
Roosevelt,  Theodore,  18. 
Edward  A.,  93. 


Safety  Appliance  act,  235. 
Salmon,  Lucy  Maynard,  47. 
"Scab,"  the,  134-136,  I39~I4O- 
Seager,  Henry  Rogers,  73~74,  77- 
Sectional  interests,  different  from 

class  interests,  38-40. 
Seligman,  E.  R.  A.,  12, 15;  quoted, 


259 


INDEX 


Social  discrimination,  153-163. 
Social   servants,    81-83,    102-113, 

122,  137-138,  243-244. 
Sotheran,  Charles,  49. 
Steffens,  Lincoln,  2,  21 ;     quoted, 

172-173. 
Stephen,  Leslie,  2,  30,  107,  108; 

quoted,  109. 
Stuart,  Otis  Kendall,  quoted,  175- 

176. 
Stuckenberg,   J.    H.   W.,   quoted, 

5-6,  21. 

T 

Tarbell,  Ida  M.,  217. 

Teller,  Charlotte,  quoted,  130. 

Tennyson,   Alfred,    quoted,    192- 

193. 

Trading  class,  the,  83-85,  97,  112; 
ethics   of,   99-101,   104,    119, 


139-167,    175-179,    195-196, 
233-243;  failure  of,  231-256. 

Tribal  ethics,  89-94. 

Tribal  industries,  41. 

U 

Untermann,  Ernest,  quoted,  7,  67. 

W 

Ward,  Lester  F.,  quoted,  4-5,  91, 

145- 

Wedderburn,  A.  J.,  quoted,  181. 
Whiskey,  adulterations  of,  196-197. 
Wiley,  H.  W.,  181. 
Wilson,  Woodrow,  23. 
Wine,  adulterations  of,  197-200. 
Wisconsin,  graft  in,  225. 
Wright,  Frances  (Madame  d'Arus- 

mont),  49. 


260 


Our  Benevolent  Feudalism 

By  W.  J.  GHENT 
Cloth  i2mo  $1.25  net 

The  Independent  said  editorially: 

"  Every  American  who  can  read  anything  will  read  Mr.  GHENT'S  article.  .  .  . 
Like  all  great  work,  in  science  or  in  art,  it  is  essentially  a  report,  a  description, 
a  picture  of  a  situation,  made  by  one  of  those  men  who  have  the  power  to  see  what 
other  men  look  at  without  seeing  and,  by  a  few  strong,  clean  strokes,  to  make  other 
men  instantly  see." 

The  New  York  Freeman's  Journal: 

"A  very  striking  article.  ...  It  is  a  profound  meditation  on  the  present 
social  and  economic  conditions,  and  on  the  trend  which  centralization  of  capital 
and  of  industrial  activities  give  toward  a  return  toward  feudalism." 

The  Public,  Chicago: 

"  No  thoughtful  American  .  .  .  observant  of  the  signs  of  the  times,  can  read  Mr. 
GHENT'S  article  without  feeling  that  what  he  describes  is  not  coming,  but  that  it  is 
here." 

FRANK  W.  HUTCHINS,  in  The  Philadelphia  Record: 

"  [This]  is  the  most  bold  and  detailed  statement  in  prophecy  of  a  coming  feudal- 
ism in  this  country.  The  writer  recognizes  and  gives  weight  to  the  various  forces 
and  tendencies  that  make  against  such  a  prophecy,  but  holds  all  insufficient  to 
protect  democracy  against  the  autocratic  power  of  money." 

GARRETT  DROPPERS,  President  of  the  University  of  South  Dakota: 

"  I  think  as  it  stands  it  is  one  of  the  most  powerful  attacks  on  the  present 
economic  organization  of  society  that  I  have  read  for  years.  Any  one  with  capacity 
for  analyzing  social  conditions  must  feel  that  here  is  an  analysis  not  to  be  laughed 
out  of  court." 

Prof.  JOHN  B.  CLARK  said  in  The  Independent: 

"  With  a  few  touches  of  his  pencil  Mr.  GHENT  has  given  definiteness  of  outline  to 
a  picture  which  has  presented  itself  in  a  nebulous  shape  to  many  minds.  ...  I 
venture  to  say  that  if  the  forecast  should  prove  to  be  accurate,  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ple that  the  system  shall  not  be  would  assert  itself  with  all  necessary  vigor  and  with 
a  very  decisive  effect." 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


THE  PLAIN  FACTS  AS  TO 
THE  TRUSTS  AND  THE  TARIFF 

With  Chapters  on  The  Railroad 
Problem  and  Municipal  Monopolies 

By  GEORGE  L.  BOLEN 

Cloth  I2mo  $1.50  net 


Comments  of  the  Press  on  the  First  Edition  : 

"The  book  contains  a  great  deal  of  common  sense." — Chris- 
tian  Work. 

UA  valuable  contribution  to  the  literature  on  trusts,  and  de- 
serves to  be  studied  by  all  interested  in  the  subject.  Mr.  Bolen 
has  collected  a  wonderful  mass  of  valuable  information,  and  he 
deals  with  the  facts  presented  in  a  thoroughly  impartial  manner. 
He  steers  a  safe  middle  course  between  the  extravagances  of  so- 
cialism, and  perfervid  support  of  the  claims  of  collectivism." — Pall 
Mall  Gazette,  London. 

"  Supplies  a  wealth  of  fact  expressed  in  plain,  practical,  every- 
day language,  such  as  may  be  easily  understood  by  any  reader 
of  ordinary  intelligence.  In  regard  to  the  trusts  especially, 
Mr.  Bolen  has  certainly  succeeded  in  making  a  difficult  subject 
easy,  and  in  adding  considerably  to  our  knowledge."  —  Imperial 
Argus,  London. 

"This  useful  book  on  the  trusts  and  the  tariff  is  very  oppor- 
tune, and  explains  in  a  masterly  way  much  that  is  to  be  said  for 
and  against  them.  The  explanation  of  the  tariff  is  particularly 
clear."  —  Morning  Post,  London. 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


GETTING  A  LIVING 

The  Problem  of  Wealth  and  Poverty,  of  Profits,  Wages, 
and  Trades  Unionism 

By  GEORGE  L.   BOLEN 
Author  of  "  Plain  Facts  as  to  the  Trusts  and  the  Tariff" 

Cloth  8vo  $2.00  net 


"  Among  other  topics  the  author  treats  land  ownership  and  Henry 
George's  proposal,  the  possibilities  of  cooperation  and  profit-sharing, 
the  history  and  politics  of  trades  unions,  apprenticeship  and  industrial 
education,  the  shorter  workday,  irregularity  of  employment,  work  by 
women  and  children,  socialism,  old  age,  insurance,  factory  laws,  public 
employment,  injunctions  in  labor  disputes,  conciliation,  collective  bar- 
gaining, and  compulsory  arbitration."  —  The  New  York  World. 

"  The  author  of  '  Getting  a  Living '  has  treated  these  various  topics 
with  a  fair-mindedness  which  is  unique.  It  is  the  only  work  of  all  the 
partisan  literature  upon  labor,  capital,  and  socialism  designed  to  give 
a  fair  approach  to  the  whole  truth  ...  a  work  it  is  which  is  not  want- 
ing in  expression  of  opinions,  but  is  remarkably  rich  in  facts." 

—  The  San  Francisco  Sunday  Call. 

"  In  addition  to  the  credit  to  be  given  Mr.  Bolen  for  lucid  and  terse 
statements,  he  must  be  commended  for  his  grasp  of  the  economic  prob- 
lem and  for  the  temperate  manner  which  characterizes  his  utterance." 

—  The  Detroit  Free  Press. 

"  It  will  be  gratifying  to  sober-minded  readers  to  know  that  certain 
problems  of  an  industrial  nature  have  been  treated  here  with  entire 
sanity  —  treatment  strikingly  in  contrast  with  much  of  the  sensational 
and  harmful  material  that  has  been  given  to  the  public  recently  in  both 
magazine  and  book  form  .  .  .  every  phase  of  the  problem  of  develop- 
ment in  industrial  fields  is  treated  with  special  attention  given  to  the 
growing  importance  of  the  relations  between  labor  organizations  and 
financial  organizations."  —  The  Globe  Democrat,  St.  Louis. 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


THE  SOCIAL  UNREST 

Studies  in  Labor  and  Socialist  Movements 

By  JOHN  GRAHAM  BROOKS 
Cloth     J2mo    $J.50net  Paper     J2mo    25  cents  net 


Professor  J.  J.  HALSEY,  in  The  Dial 

"  Its  production  is  a  supreme  accomplishment  —  the  most  satisfac- 
tory book  in  the  field  of  social  study  for  many  a  day." 

Professor  J.  H.  GRAY,  Atlantic  Monthly 

"No  one  can  read  the  work  without  getting  a  clearer  and  nobler 
conception  of  the  possibilities  of  human  society.  The  wealth  of 
incident,  argument,  and  illustrations  introduced  makes  it  necessary 
to  read  the  book  many  times  to  appreciate  it  fully." 

PALL  MALL  GAZETTE,  London 

"  It  is  an  extraordinarily  interesting  book." 
LONDON  ATHEN^UM 

"A  volume  of  extreme  interest  with  an  attractive  simplicity  of 

style." 

THE  SUN,  New  York 

"  A  more  thoughtful  discussion  of  the  relations  of  capital  and  labor 
and  the  future  of  industry  we  have  not  seen.  .  .  .  The  subject  is 
treated  with  a  profound  knowledge  of  existing  conditions  and  with 
great  ability." 

NEW  YORK  TIMES 

"  Hardly  a  page  of  his  packed  book  but  bears  evidence  of  his 
patience,  industry,  acuteness,  and  fair-mindedness." 

President  DROPPERS,  University  of  South  Dakota 

"  It  seems  to  me  quite  the  most  effective  statement  of  our  social 
difficulties  that  I  have  read  in  recent  years." 

President  JOHN  FINLEY,  College  City  of  New  York 

"One  is  not  likely,  I  think,  to  find  better  instruction  than  this 
modest  volume  presents  out  of  the  years  of  observation  by  this 
patient,  intelligent,  and  practical,  yet  scholarly,  surveyor  of  human 
struggles." 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORR 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  sub  ie ii*ljrdiate  recall. 


:C*D 


m?»  <    *t  uw  —  *+- 

j 

OCT29'65-2PM 

—  1-  •  .....     .,   ••• 

-*-~ 

LOAN  DEPT. 

—  Kh.c  P  LD 

nrA  i  "2  1^\^>    (Ti  ••  •  • 

Uhl  ^3'63'opM 

NOV  0  9  2002 

REC'D  UP 

HWH'64-ffl-^ 

HAY  4    'B5-21 

0013019052 


LD  21A-40m-4,'63 
(D647lBlO)476B 


General  Library 

University  of  California 

Berkeley 


OF  CAUFORNIA  LIBRARY 


